


a question of time

by raynos



Category: Homestuck, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Dave Strider Swearing, F/M, Memory Magic, Not Epilogue Compliant, Not Rebellion Story Compliant, Pesterlog(s) (Homestuck), Slow Burn, Strider Manpain, Time Shenanigans, sloooooooooow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28605702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raynos/pseuds/raynos
Summary: On an Earth that seems reset to pre-SBURB normalcy, Dave Strider transfers to Mitakihara. There he finds the magical girl system, more universe breaking powers, and an Akemi Homura all too eager to fix her time abilities with his...AU crossover fic that diverges just before Homestuck's Credits and Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Rebellion movie.Fic updates every two weeks.
Relationships: Akemi Homura & Sakura Kyouko, Akemi Homura & Tomoe Mami, Akemi Homura/Dave Strider, Akemi Homura/Kaname Madoka, Dave Strider & Dirk Strider, Jade Harley & Dave Strider
Comments: 35
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 10th anniversary to PMMM! And soon-to-be 10 years since I learned about Homestuck from a Dave/Homura fic!
> 
> As mentioned, the fic diverges just before Homestuck's Credits and Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Rebellion movie, so the fic has spoilers up until these points! Timeline-wise, this happens in the year SBURB ended and one year after PMMM's episode 12, so that's about 2012. But PMMM is ahead of its time (see, Kyousuke's CD player) so expect references from as far as 2016 to sneak in.
> 
> For PMMM only the anime and movies are referenced.
> 
> Also a huge THANK YOU to my beta and overall lovely friend [Suikyou](/users/Suikyou/) for whipping this into shape and cheerleading and still writing great Critical Role fic on top of all that work <3

Monday morning, and Dave Strider was already checking off several tropes.

Might as well get the obvious out of the way before anyone went tripping over it and hitting everything on the way down, all “I told you about stairs, bro” style. First day of school, check, like a teen movie high off whiffing its own hormones. Transfer Student, check, thanks to Bro. Who was making his own digs in Tropeville with his decision to ollie outie from Houston by becoming an English teacher in Japan, another shiny achievement for the _Otaku_ Legion. Dave didn't feel like kicking around Houston by himself, plus how often would he get the chance to hang in the land of shitty swords and anime waifus?

So now Dave was a _gaijin_ , a foreigner in a sea of Japanese students, who probably thought they were doing a bang up job of hiding their stares and whispers as he walked past. Like they could, with how many cliques there already were because Dave was a Late Joiner (so the US school term worked differently from Japan's, they could deal).

Dave could handle stares, especially after beating SBURB just to end up on an Earth reset to the way it was before the game.

"Need me to walk you to your homeroom?"

Alright, maybe not 100% the way it was. It was still weird to see Bro and hear Dirk. The Bro that Dave knew would never have made such an offer or walked next to Dave without a body check and an impromptu strife at some point.

To this version of Bro, Dave dared a drawl of "Bro, I'm not five."

"Shit, seems like the timestamp on that memory was 11 years ago. You're still plenty short." When this Bro reached out, it was to pat the top of Dave's head to remind him how short he was. Dave put up with it, just like he was putting up with being in middle school because doing high school in Japanese on top of missing years of regular school? Dave wasn't into the BDSM life. 

Bro's shove was a little more familiar. "Find something to entertain yourself that doesn't involve getting into trouble."

Thanks to the fresh-off-the-production-line, limited edition Strider-sensei, Dave had the jump on getting to the right class despite the maze of fancy architecture and glass everywhere. Not that it was any better in the classroom, just the same stares and whispers - it was kind of getting old.

Except for the record skip of one student stepping out of the crowd to approach him. A student who happened to be a girl. Specifically a girl with amazing legs, cool expression, silky black hair held back with a ribbon in Dave's favorite red, like a gift-wrapped version of boy meets girl from actual rom-coms, not the shitty troll knock offs from Karkat's illicit stash. As far as temporary distractions went, Dave could do worse.

Then the girl spoke, and the moment wasn't a simple record skip that could be forgotten in a moment, the needle went so hard over the record that it cracked right through. "You're in the wrong place," she said in Japanese.

Dave shot back his flattest, "What?"

That came out in English, but she still replied in Japanese, "You should report to the school office first." She tossed an explanation over her shoulder as she walked past. "I was a transfer student before. I know where it is."

There were worse reasons for Dave to follow. Besides, why should he pass up the chance to admire the view from behind?

He wasn’t entirely an ass though (though the girl had a choice specimen, someone stacked the Appearance stats). So he asked, remembering his Japanese this time, "Do you have a name or should I keep calling you Former Transfer Student?"

"It's Akemi Homura."

"Dave Strider." His name rolled off his tongue the Western way, even though she hadn't asked or even turned to face him. She was too busy striding down the bridge (made of, whodda thunk it, glass) leading to the next block like she owned it. "How long since you transferred? Are you sure you’re remembering correctly how the first day of the transfer goes?"

Akemi Homura didn't even bother with a reply. Instead she stepped into the next building and pushed open the first door she came across. Dave followed her.

It was an office, since Bro was there along with a stack of forms. Like Dave, Bro's eyes were hidden by shades, but Dave didn't need to see his eyes to feel the razor like focus of Bro's attention.

If Akemi knew that she was getting a fair share of Bro's attention, she didn't show it. "Ask for our form teacher, she will tell you what you need."

Just as suddenly as she appeared, she turned and stepped out of the office, leaving Dave to mull the mystery of Akemi Homura.

* * *

So there were two Striders instead of one.

Homura discovered this when her usual English teacher introduced the new teaching assistant, family name first. It was unlike the way "Dave Strider" had introduced himself to her, on the same bridge that Madoka had first introduced herself.

It didn't matter. Especially not when the Incubator, Kyubey, came sidling up to Homura's school bag.

"Shouldn't you be with Tomoe-san?" she murmured, since only magical girls could see Incubators.

Kyubey batted at the top of the bag. _Wraiths usually appear closer to your school than Mami's. It's too bad she graduated._

That would be Homura and Kyouko next year, but she didn't tell the Incubator that as he wriggled his way inside her bag. It didn't matter. Homura had lived her life not expecting time to pass beyond the one month that she had been living in. Another year to Homura was as distant a concept as infinity.

Kyouko brought Homura back to the present, plonking herself in the nearest seat for the paired assignment. "Strider-sensei wants us to practice asking each other where we're from. And answering!" she groaned, the only one not speaking English at the moment.

Kyouko's school record was spotty, and her English even spottier. She needed the practice more than Homura did, so Homura let her try more times, offering suggestions instead of asking the set questions. She knew that her lack of practice was obvious, so she'd been prepared for either of the teachers to come over.

But it was the younger Strider with the round shades, not the older Strider with the pointed ones, that came over. He'd been exempted from the exercise given that he had been speaking English his entire life. Even though Homura suspected Strider was here to get her attention again, she was curious despite herself. He'd spoken to her in Japanese earlier, understandable despite the strange way that he'd drawn out some of the sounds. She had not really paid attention when he spoke in English.

Strider surprised her by first speaking to Kyouko. Just as surprising was that his accent persisted when he spoke English, yet his accent seemed to mold to the words better, even with a simple question of, "What's your name?"

"Sakura - I am Sakura Kyouko," Kyouko managed, even though she tripped over the order of the English words.

Strider waited a second, two before he switched languages to say, "You can ask for my name any time now."

"Why should I?" Kyouko's annoyance came through better when she had the whole range of Japanese at her disposal. "You just introduced yourself in front of the entire class, Strider Dave!"

In Kyouko's mouth it was too obvious that Strider had a foreign name, with the "v" and "str" sounds that didn't exist in Japanese. Strider bore the mangling of his name well. "Think you could do that sentence again in English?"

Under Strider's prompting, Kyouko made a pretty good attempt at the English version, which gave her the confidence to try the questions set by the teachers. The moment Kyouko got on track was when Strider decided to go off track.

"You were from Kazamino City? When did you transfer to Mitakihara?"

Kyouko practically crowed in English, "I was here, a year ago."

"It's a Transfer Student torch relay all up in here, blazing through the entire place making everything even hotter than our combined good looks."

It's too bad the long spiel in another language left Kyouko confused; Homura would've liked to hear her comeback to that. Some of Homura's thoughts must have shown on her face, because Strider tossed out at her, "How long since you transferred?"

"I transferred when I was 14." It's the easiest version to say, both in terms of truth and the English words Homura was more comfortable with. "How long since you transferred?"

"Today, or if you wanna get all precise about it, 3 hours 25 minutes 6 seconds," Strider rattled off. Homura's long dormant time sense stirred with the realization that he was right about how much time had passed since the start of the school day.

Despite herself, he'd managed to capture her attention.

* * *

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering  turntechGodhead [TG] at 19:36 --

GG: dave!! how is japan!!!

Of course Jade was the first to ask from her place in the middle of the Pacific; it's 05:36 for Rose and even earlier in the morning for John.

TG: woah harley not even a hi how are you  
TG: straight to japan your new squeeze  
TG: all this fine strider human cast aside for an island of volcanoes and cherry blossoms  
GG: there are no cherry blossoms now!!  
GG: wrong time of year a knight of time should know!!  
TG: shit you got me brb going to hang up my cape now to the sobs of all these maidens mourning the loss of my knighthood and chivalry  
GG: before you go tell me what you think of japan!!!

Times like these Dave wondered if they were too focused on finding out how much of their powers they still had access to. Finding out if Jade was part dog was a valid use of time.

TG: alright jade time to let go of that question let it fly like a well thrown newspaper so we can play fetch  
TG: no need to ask how i am ive maxed out my quota of how are you  
TG: oops there i go again busting the limit sticking it to the man  
TG: japan is fine and ungodzilla stomped  
TG: its 22 minutes to midnight where you are what happened to sleep

Some days Dave missed snoozy Jade, because present Jade was Red Bull all nighter Jade, and he was never sure when she rested.

GG: yes but  
GG: i wanted to know all about how things are do you have a place yet how was school how cool did you feel???  
TG: oh man you know it  
TG: at my chillest against all the hot stares from being a fine specimen of gaijin  
TG: hot bod blonde hair no blue eyes cos id be overpowered

>HEAR DOOR SLAM, FOLLOWED BY RUSTLE OF BAGS

TG: shit  
TG: dinner is served courtesy of bro the takeaway butler  
TG: i hate to eat and text but you babe are the exception to the rule  
GG: go eat! i can wait  
GG: or reach across space to try a bite for myself I havent decided yet!  
TG: i know im only the time guy  
TG: but tick tock dinner time for me means its bedtime for you  
TG: do you remember a thing called sleep  
TG: or did you max out your lifetime supply with all the sleep from before  
GG: i cant sleep :(  
GG: the universe is shifting :( :(

>BE NOT AMUSED

Bro opened the door just enough to pop his head in, spot Dave's expression and make a tactical retreat. Probably to eat all the takeaway himself, but Dave had more important things on his plate. 

TG: what the hell harley  
TG: and you were asking how is japan  
TG: getting out my timetables going back to the start of chat so you can redo and ask me how is the universe maybe  
GG: the universe is still stable!  
GG: just creaking a little :(  
TG: creaking enough for your spacey senses to start tingling  
GG: but your timey senses arent tingling  
GG: i dont think lord english is trying new timelines again or looking for a tug of war rematch  
TG: he got the drop on us once  
TG: pulled us out of the Earth C timeline into this clusterfuck of a universe  
TG: trolls on alternia humans on earth dont even know if the mayor has his own planet  
GG: i cant find derse or prospit :(  
TG: shoosh babe i know u tried

Dave knew he shouldn't type the next bit like a broken record featuring dead horses that were experiencing a different kind of beat, but he still did.

TG: you know what would be a lot easier to try  
TG: warping alternia to us  
TG: give earth a new next door neighbor  
TG: id trade you you reach across space i get elbow deep in time go rooting about in the sands until i grab grandpa jake and nanna jane

He knew what Jade would say too, but he still read what she typed like a soon to be Dead Dave following a doomed timeline.

GG: what if spacetime shenanigans push us further away instead of together  
GG: what if our powers work too well and we end up breaking this universe  
GG: we could lose dirk bro and roxy mom too :(

Dave's current apartment was quiet enough that he could hear Bro starting on his food. That was the thing though - it's quiet. The place should be a lot more noisy with Jake laughing at Dirk and Karkat complaining and maybe even Terezi snarking -

They weren't there, though. And Bro was alone because Dave was in his room, being useless by wishing for others to be there instead of doing something about it himself. If Dave wasn't careful it wouldn't be spacetime shenanigans that pushed them apart.

TG: im grabbing dinner now  
GG: i miss them too :(  
GG: see you later

\--  turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering  gardenGnostic [GG] at 19:44 --

* * *

Thanks to her wings, Homura got to the Wraiths before Kyouko and Mami. As usual.

Fine by her. She strung her bow with magic and summoned an arrow (as she'd seen Madoka do a thousand times). Honed by all the different weapons she'd used, muscle memory let Homura aim and fire for the arrow to fly true. (Did it come as easy for Madoka?)

Wraiths didn't have Witch barriers but it still took a number of arrows to bring them down. Without someone to watch her back, Homura used her wings to keep her distance and prevent the Wraiths from surrounding her.

It's long, slow work but that's fine. (Nothing was as long and as slow as Homura's fight against Walpurgisnacht.)

One of the Wraiths collapsed into Grief Cubes when Homura's barrage of arrows was topped off with a stab from a spearhead. She flew closer, intending to cover Kyouko so that she could focus on the direct attack. As she swooped down, she saw that there was no need for cover when the Wraiths were all bound by ribbons, keeping them from harming both humans and the magical girls who were fighting them.

Mami fired off a barrage, much like Homura had just moments earlier, although Mami's attack was made of bullets rather than energy arrows. Mami took the reprieve provided by her salvo to call out, "Akemi-san! Are there any humans trapped by the Wraiths?"

"No, they escaped when I distracted the Wraiths."

"Then start with the Wraith on the right!"

It was Homura's fight before Mami arrived, but it's easier for her to just follow Mami’s instructions. Mami's ribbons allowed Kyouko and Homura to focus more on attacks. Since they only had to dodge the Wraith's lasers, the fight finished much faster than if Homura were to fight alone.

Mami took charge of the Grief Cube distribution as well. "Let's just use enough Grief Cubes to cleanse our gems, and keep the rest in case our Soul Gems are dulled from other uses of magic."

In the old universe, where it was possible to taint a Soul Gem fighting familiars, Homura had admired Mami's caution. She wasn't sure what prompted Mami to be as cautious in this universe; maybe knowledge of Wraiths that Homura did not have, or Mami's leftover memories from the previous universe.

Mami did pick up on Homura's muted response. "Akemi-san, you can have more Grief Cubes since you started the fight much earlier. We'll be fair since you spent more magic."

"It's fine." Homura ran her hand through her hair and flicked it. Even if not all of Homura’s memories applied to the Mami of this universe, the Mami that Homura remembered most vividly clung on to being the veteran magic girl that knew the most as a core part of her identity. Mami would not take well to a challenge of her identity based on experience only Homura remembered.

Kyouko might be convinced, but she had spent enough of her life in this universe for Homura to conclude that she would not be a useful ally. This Kyouko also had a long history of partnering Mami and was too used to her way of fighting Wraiths.

Like when Mami suggested, "It's not safe to cleanse our Soul Gems outside. Let's go to my place for cleansing and cake."

Kyouko only paused in munching her Pocky to comment, "I think I finished the cookies and cream cake."

"I managed to save a slice for you and I'll make more tomorrow."

"Then let's go."

There were times when Homura suspected that her presence was preventing Kyouko and Mami from settling back into the rhythms of their usual partnership. Homura had no favorite cake, since she had not been allowed any when being treated for her heart condition. She couldn't appreciate cake the way Kyouko did, or Madoka used to. Madoka deserved to join them for cake more than Homura did.

She still followed them to Mami's apartment because she did need Grief Cubes. The latest change to teatime in Mami's apartment was the high school uniform that Mami wore. Since leaving middle school, she'd developed a keen interest in finding out how Kyouko and Homura's classes were going.

"Are lessons harder now that it's your final year?" she asked, while Kyouko and she counted out Grief Cubes. Homura sipped on her tea and left Kyouko to answer.

"They're always hard," Kyouko groaned. "I should just drop out of school, I'll never make it."

"You said you were tired of working at the convenience store."

"I said I was tired of getting the night shifts, that's when the Wraiths come out."

"Then you should study more so you have better job choices."

Mami finished up dividing the Grief Cubes and handed one to Homura. As the cube began to draw out the tainted energy from her Soul Gem, Homura found that her thoughts about Kyouko and Mami's partnership faded in intensity. It was a necessary reminder that in this universe, grief still had the same effect on a magic girl, even if they never reached the inevitable conclusion of that grief thanks to Madoka.

"Akemi-san, do you think Kyouko is right and school is hard?"

School had gotten harder for Homura after they had moved on to new topics that weren't covered during her time loops. She knew that it didn't show, because Kyouko rolled her eyes and said, "She still gets perfect grades. Plus she spoke in English to a transfer student from America without breaking a sweat!"

Mami lowered her tea. "America? How exciting. That sounds like a rare chance to improve your English."

"More like get tortured. Our new teacher is from America too, and he talks so fast! Argh! All this frustration is making me hungry!"

As Kyouko chowed down on a slice of cake, Mami turned to Homura. "It's good that you're getting perfect grades. Do remember to take breaks too. Life isn't all about studying."

Homura flicked another Grief Cube closer to her Soul Gem. Even though that cube also started drawing in grief, it didn't soften her selfish desire for Mami's reminder to come from someone else. "I'll keep that in mind," she said, not wanting Mami's hopeful expression to fade. "Your cake is delicious. You said that this is a zuccotto?"

She knew that would prompt Mami to talk about the baking process, which let Homura fall back into her own thoughts again.

* * *

It'd been two weeks since she'd sent Dave Strider to the school office, and her classmates had yet to get bored of staring at him.

It was hard not to notice him, with his ever present shades a sharp contrast to his pale hair and skin, and the foreign lilt to his words.

He even got attention from the teachers. They seemed intent on finding out exactly how much he knew, and at some point in the lesson he would be picked to answer questions. That in turn drew more attention from the students, including Homura if she wanted to follow along with the lesson. In the process, some things became obvious to her.

One: Strider had probably done reasonably well at school in the US, as he seemed intelligent. He understood the teachers' questions, and his responses, if unstructured, usually led to the right conclusion.

Two: unless it was Math, he was completely unable to present on the board.

Which was probably linked to three: for all that he could hold his own in spoken Japanese, his written Japanese lagged behind.

She didn't know if the other students had come to the same conclusion as her, but she did know that it resulted in a lot of gossip around Dave Strider. Homura wondered if all transfer students went through the same hard process. Watching Strider reminded Homura of the very first time that she had transferred to Mitakihara, all those timelines ago. That was why she had directed Strider to the right place on the first day of school. It was also why, when the bell for the lunch break sounded, she had stopped when she saw that Strider had remained in his seat, while students hovered behind him and whispered among themselves. Was this how Madoka had felt watching Homura hunched over her desk with the force of all the attention?

Madoka would have done something for Strider, too. But since it was Homura and not Madoka who was here, Homura owed it to Madoka to do something about this.

Kyouko, not knowing what was going through Homura's mind, snagged the corner of Homura's sleeve while passing and tugged. "Let's go. I can't eat properly in this stuffy classroom."

"Go ahead, I have some work to do."

Kyouko let go with a shrug. There was nothing Homura could do about the other students still watching, so she steeled herself and walked over.

Strider noticed her coming over immediately. "Woah, are you my personal GPS?" he rattled off in English. "Keeping track of where I'm supposed to be, prompting me not to miss the turn towards lunch oops overshot the exit you have to recalculate."

What he's saying was irrelevant to what she was here to do. She focused on looking at his notebook, which was a mess of _hiragana_ , English words and doodles. The last reminded Homura of Madoka, though Madoka didn't have the habit of drawing guys with huge noses, misshapen mouths and beards. She made herself focus on the _hiragana_ showing the syllables of the words Strider wanted to form. If she were grouping the _hiragana_ correctly, then Strider was able to answer the questions from their last class, just in the way an elementary school student might do it. The teachers would be expecting Strider to use _kanji_ since its symbols would more accurately convey his words.

English would give them a little protection from the curious onlookers, so Homura made an attempt. "You don't know _kanji_?"

"Not enough. Bro's the one who read manga. Didn't know skipping the otaku life was going to be a disadvantage, so I listened to more shows and music."

This was going to take a little longer than she expected. But since she had decided to help, she ought to see it all the way through. She put down the lunch box that she'd been about to bring to the rooftop where she and Kyouko shared their meals.

"We're having a picnic here in the classroom?” He pulled out a traditional looking bento box, though Homura couldn’t imagine Strider taking the time to make a proper decorative bento. “Sorry babe, I haven't prepped the fancy picnic mat, perfect weather or atmospheric drifting petals."

Her hands now freed, she went back to her desk to get her own notebook and pencil case. She brought all these over to Strider's desk, then pulled up a chair too.

“Now you're channeling the vibes of a study session in a café. Can’t we just do the picnic?"

"Work before food," she informed him, opening her notebook to a new page where she rewrote the sentence she had been looking at. "Is this what you meant?" She explained the _kanji_ to him.

"Welp, you've gone and done it now."

"Done what?"

"Upstaged me in being a knight in shining armor, in the hopes I would collapse onto the nearest fainting couch. Got to break it to you that I don't swoon that easy, you got to defeat my greatest foe, switch up universes or translate this for me."

Strider flipped to a page that was entirely in English. Homura glanced at it before turning the full force of her glare on him. "My English is not as good as yours."

"C'mon, I'll explain it to you."

Between translating that page into Japanese and the explanations back and forth in both English and Japanese, enough time had passed that Homura opened her lunch box to let Strider know he could eat, too. Instead, she spotted Strider sneaking some cocktail sausages from her. She considered rapping him over the knuckles the next time he tried. But she suspected that his actual lunch was as jumbled as Kyouko's, and she let Kyouko share her food, too. So she pretended not to see Strider helping himself to food that she'd prepared.

Halfway down the page they were on Strider also gave up on both translation and sneaking food and popped open the cover of his lunch. Homura's hunch was confirmed - every compartment seemed to consist almost entirely of fried things, and they were not arranged with any kind of artistic merit. It qualified for the same category as Kyouko's lunch, which mostly consisted of snacks from the convenience store.

"You can have some too."

Strider had misinterpreted her staring at his lunch. "No, thank you."

"There goes my quick-and-easy version of repaying my debts. Do I have to roll out the full red carpet treatment, all camera flashes and fancy couture?"

Homura focused only on the part that deserved a response. "You don't have any debts to repay."

"An entire class and only you popped by." Strider waved vaguely in the direction of the gathered gossips. "Unless you're the Champion of Transfer Students, I thought we had something special."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"I can see it now, you ride in all gallant and dashing, transfer students toss you their favors... so that's how you got all chummy with Sakura huh? What favor did she give you?"

"Sakura-san doesn't just give people things." Homura thought about it and then had to admit, "Except food."

Strider attempted to waft the scent of his lunch at her, which Homura waved away.

"There's got to be something that you like."

She didn't let him go off on one of his tangents again. "What I like is none of your concern, Strider." She tugged out the pages of the notebook she had written on, and left those on his desk. "I hope that's good enough."

His eyes weren't the only ones following her back to her desk. It was fine - she'd been the center of attention before.

* * *

Dave was sure that this outing with Bro had started with the intention of finding hints that the universe was shifting. That plan didn't fit with the anime store that they were in right now.

Alright, three stories worth of otaku wet dreams would never have made it to Houston, so Bro was excused for making a direct swan dive into that sweet sweet swag. Except now Bro wanted Dave to sink into the depths of depravity with the blind boxes that he was holding out.

"You want me to what?"

"Seal these boxes back up with your powers."

"Must have skipped the part of the timeline where you explained why they are even open in the first place."

"I only wanted this one," Bro rattled the box in his left hand, which was, what a fucking surprise, also opened. "But I didn't know which box had the one I wanted until I got through these." He lifted the carton in his right hand, which had maybe, oh, about half of them opened.

"I don't know what's acceptable in the universe where Earth did a Waterworld, but I'm pretty sure in this one a normal human being would buy them, THEN open them."

"We're not normal human beings, or you wouldn't have the powers to rewind time and seal them back up. Buying that many isn't an option on a teacher's salary, especially when that's what's keeping up our lifestyle here. Between that and all the _kanji_ drills, you owe me."

"So this is your boon for torturing me, that's how we're doing rewards in this game." Dave did take the carton from Bro. At least the training by the Dirk edition of Bro had some actual use, instead of putting Dave off any hint of a fi-

It didn't matter. Dave's thoughts didn't have to go there anymore.

He pored over the carton, even though this part of his time powers didn't need much of his concentration. Hell, it was the entire basis of how he shifted his swords between 1/2 bladekind and bladekind and he'd been using it on the fly during battle when every moment was a fine line between life and -

His thoughts didn't have to go there either. This was a cushy universe as long as they were all playing the waiting game instead of doing something.

What Dave did right now was to feel out the timeline of these blind boxes, make sure that he traced them to a point in time where they already had the figurines inside them and had been sealed. About one week ago should do it. He hadn't gotten around to checking how long the effects of his powers lasted, but he had marked off on his mental calendar not to be here in one week's time.

For good measure he did the same to the blind box that Bro was holding, so that he could pay for it without sending the shop assistant into a fit at the sight of the damaged item. Bro tossed off a salute in thanks.

"Like you get off that easy for making me use my powers after all of Jade’s talk about keeping a low profile. I need you to drop new gear and a level upgrade."

"Like it's a big deal to use powers. If you know how to keep a low profile when using them, you can make it a daily workout like I have," Bro scoffed, and then headed off to the check out.

It took Dave a good five seconds to figure out that statement. When they had decided to test their powers, they had drifted towards their own partners for different capabilities. Space and time usually affected each other when they shifted, so Jade was a natural shoo-in for Dave's partner. When Rose wasn't using her Seer powers to look for things John could safely attempt to retcon, Dave was sort of helping John with his Retcon powers (hadn't worked on any of the timelines they'd found, even though statistically one of them had to be the alpha timeline). Roxy Mom, to use Jade's nicknames, had been helping Dirk Bro because their Rogue and Prince powers had links to taking things, and Dave had left them to it. Maybe that hadn't been such a good idea, since it wasn't fair the adults dicked around while Dave kept his powers tamped down, as if that wasn't what had landed them here -

His mind reached the dead end of that thought as he hit a block in the maze of shelves. By the time Dave extracted himself, Bro had paid and was about to exit the line.

Even though it sent the more wary part of his instincts blaring, Dave stood toe to toe with Bro. The proximity let Dave demand in a low tone, "So this is about the time that you tell me I didn't hear anything about powers, or daily, or powers used daily."

The proximity bothered Bro enough that he grabbed Dave by the shoulders and moved him bodily out of the way. Even though Dave knew from their sparring that Bro was capable of it, it still stung to be reminded that even to this Bro, he was still younger (weaker).

Unaware of Dave's thoughts, Bro shouldered past Dave to head to the capsule machines. When Dave followed, Bro said, "Don't get your panties in a twist. We're just using our powers to look at things."

"What, looking at how to break hearts?" Dave himself flinched back from the words once they had come out of his mouth.

"By looking at the reverse of what comes easiest to me, yes." Bro kept his gaze on the machine he'd stopped in front of for a minute longer than he had to. By the time he looked back at Dave again, both their expressions were as equally and as carefully blank. "One of the things I've been practicing is how to see souls."

"Not sure Lord English even has a soul to look at."

"Maybe not. But it's the safest thing to practice while we figure out what this universe can handle. I've been doing this long enough to see something weird in Mitakihara. The people here, they have souls that aren't in the right place."

"You mean hearts this time."

"Nope. Souls."

"Here I was all set to master my Persona and join the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."

This earned a smirk from Bro. "With two Striders in town, the big bad won't know what hit him."

Despite the fallout from his earlier outburst, Dave felt a corner of his mouth lift. "So what's the low-down on this soul thing?"

"Most souls I've seen are always in the same place within the body. In Mitakihara, some souls shift even as I'm looking at them."

"Maybe that's just a Japanese thing, getting all shy that a gorgeous _gaijin_ is checking them out."

"One of those with shifting souls is Homura Akemi, and she won't even give you the time of the day."

"Never asked her, because I always know what time of day it is. I guess you're just seeing proof that her beauty is literally unnatural."

Bro gave Dave the full force of his attention in the same way he had in the admin office on the first day of school. Like then, Dave didn't fold.

Bro scoffed. "Even before using my Heart powers, I already know it's a bad idea to hang out with her."

"You're just jealous that no cute guys are into your version of Strider sex appeal."

"My version of sex appeal is too pure and undistilled for anyone to think about tapping when they like. Your version is the bootleg knock-off that you peddle on the street corner to anyone who comes along. Still, if you decide Akemi deserves your moves, I reserve the right to say I told you, dog."

"Someone needs to get a recording of this, it almost sounded like a confession that you really do care."

Bro turned on his heel to leave, but he did flash his middle finger over his shoulder.

* * *

Bro wasn't the only one who was seeing weird things, because the next week at school Dave spotted a creature that should not exist.

For a moment, he thought that his riffing off with Bro during this English lesson was so biznasty that it spontaneously opened up a worm hole which started dumping bizarre creatures in class, and he and Bro would have to save the whole world with the power of song. But then the creature just hopped up onto Sakura's bag and started napping, which wasn't quite in keeping with alien overlords that wanted to take over the world, so Dave put down his metaphorical sword and slouched back to just watch it.

It was a really bizarre thing, as if someone thought “yo sup dawg I heard you like ears so I put some ears in your ears so you hear while you hear.” Then that someone added bling to those ears, and also decided that pink, red and white was a rad combo. Definitely a new species of Hello Kitty.

Yet no one was paying any attention to that weird thing. Dave thought it'd be like a Pokemon moment, gotta catch them all so get that weird cat! But no, no reaction from anyone at all. Not even Bro, who he thought would spare a sarcastic comment on the mutant pet.

He sneaked a glance at Sakura. She was sucking on a mint and completely ignoring the thing on her bag. No help there.

Then he sneaked a glance at Akemi, who was also doing nothing more than eyeing that creature, too. Huh, figured that Akemi would even be chill about an alien creature that turned up in the classroom. He was starting to think nothing would surprise her.

She slid her eyes from the creature to Dave. Naturally he gave her a coolkid smirk.

She just flicked her eyes skywards and turned back to listen to Bro Sensei. When Dave looked back to Sakura's bag, the mutant pet was gone.

He meant to forget about the Cheshire invisible alien cat, until he spotted Akemi with a brand new accessory at the end of school. Dave stared at the marshmallow fluff masquerading as a mutant Hello Kitty headband.

Well, here was his chance of finding out what it was. He walked over to Akemi, who was focused on packing her bag instead of whatever it was on her head. "Fancy headgear," he said in English, because he had no idea what turn the conversation would take.

She touched a hand to her head and took his cue on the language. "Strange that you should only comment on it now."

She thought he was talking about her ribbon. "No, that's totally your signature headgear, you keep doing that. Just saying you got an invader violating your head space."

Alien rabbit cat just cracked open a beady red eye and flicked an ear at him. The cat-like part of its ear, not the bunny-like bit. Its fluffy tail was trailing along the side of Akemi's hair like Davy Crockett's racoon tail hat. Akemi just looked at Dave as if he were the one who'd gone mad.

And maybe he had, if he was seeing invisible fluff balls everywhere. "Just hold still and let me get that."

He meant to tug on the thing's tail, but it whisked its ridicufluffyhuge tail out of his grasp and darted down to perch on Akemi's shoulder. _That's not nice, Dave Strider._

The words bloomed in his head in his inner voice, if his inner voice was high-pitched and overly formal. "A psychic talking invisible cat-bunny alien. Alright, what shitty 2D cartoon did you pull yourself from?"

_If you really believed I couldn't exist, you wouldn't be able to see me._

Dave had something witty to say to that, he really did, but that program completely crashed when he committed the fatal error of looking at Akemi. There was a cold edge in her eyes that put a completely new meaning to "staring daggers".

Which was why when she said the single word, “Come,” he’d followed under the pull of her command and the push of his own curiosity. With all the students leaving school, she brought Dave and the passenger on her shoulder to what must be the only empty stairwell in the entire building.

"Off," she said to the March Hare Lopunny thing and shrugged her shoulder. It wasn’t immune to her commands either and leapt off, but wound itself around her ankles and curled its tail like a question mark, which only slightly made up for its one note expression.

_It's not my fault that he's a strange one. I value privacy as much as you do._

"Then you should stay out of this conversation." She looked back to Dave. "You can see him?'

"Hey, isn't he your buddy or pet or battling Pokemon? You did let him perch on your head."

"He is convenient," she said, which was a weird way to talk about a companion you could wear on your head. "I have no control over what he does. Which is why I want to know - did you make a contract with him?"

Dave stared. "Ain't got a pen and haven't seen any fucking paper or fine print. What, is he a lawyer on top of being a mind-reading smart-talking Pokemon? Man, Japan is crazy."

"That doesn't matter." She looked strangely relieved. "When he's not making contracts, he's tolerable."

_I don't understand,_ said the creature, head tilted to one side to regard the both of them.

"I'm just as confused as he is. I've got enough questions to start a game show. What is he, how did you get to know him, why can the both of us see him but not anyone else?"

"All you need to know is he is an Incubator."

Akemi's steely tone was a stark contrast to the perky tones of the Incubator, _Akemi Homura formed a contract with me and became a Puella Magi!_

What sort of Harry Potter Latin spewing alien mess had Dave gotten himself into?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some ideas from PMMM's Wraith Arc manga appear in this chapter, but no knowledge of the Wraith Arc is needed to enjoy!
> 
> THANK YOU to my beta and overall lovely friend [Suikyou](/users/Suikyou/) for battling timezones, new plot bunnies, work and life in general to whip this into shape <3

Dave Strider was still following behind Homura as if that would annoy the answers out of her.

Some of that was her fault. When the Incubator started telling Strider about Homura, she had pulled Strider away; that way, the Incubator couldn't tell him more. Killing the Incubator wasn't an option because she hadn't done that yet in this universe.

Unfortunately, Strider had mistaken her grabbing his wrist as a sign that she would answer his questions, even though she'd let go of him once they reached the school lockers. She hadn't known it was possible to ask so many questions, but he was still going a good 15 minutes after they’d left the school.

"Did you know that Magi is what we call the three old dudes that went to visit a baby in a manger? I don't think that's what the Incubator meant, but if you're secretly a dude could I get some presents out of that? I could totally use some gold, though smelling nice is great too. But if _magi_ means ‘magic,’ what kind of magic do you have?"

She hadn't thought her Catholic upbringing, some of it with foreign missionaries well-versed in English, would help her understand much of what Strider said. So she was not needled into answering any of it, much less the question he’d tagged on the end.

It was late afternoon, so the riverside they were walking along was not yet crowded with office workers relaxing after a long day. No one else was paying attention to Strider, who had now switched topics. "If you had told me the word ‘Puella’ before today, I would have said it was some type of Spanish rice. The Incubator said you became Puella Magi after you formed the contract, does that mean you weren't one before? What the hell would that contract even look like? Does the Incubator have an office with a huge mahogany desk and killer view where he can show me a contract?"

She had spun to face him before she was even aware of the action. "Don't contract with the Incubator," she said, lapsing into panicked Japanese.

He had stopped when she stopped, but still maintained his picture of cool. He had his hands in his pockets and a slouch calculated to invoke the idea of “collected casual” instead of “sloppy”. He’d even unfastened his school jacket to frame his t-shirt with a slashed record printed on it. His next question was just as calculated, especially when he kept speaking in English to keep her slightly off kilter. "If you really want to warn a person, you have got to stop talking like you're a Sphinx and I'm trying to get my thieving hands into the Cairo overcoat. Are you trying to warn me away from a contract? Or you're stopping me from contracting with the Incubator because you want my contract all to yourself? If it's with you, I'm writing in the clause we have to seal the contract with a kiss, that's non-negotiable."

Homura realised that she did not know what to say to Strider. He was not Madoka, who cared so much about her friends and family. He was not Sayaka, who made a wish for someone else. For all that Homura had a lot of experience trying to talk others out of contracts, she had not actually succeeded, or Madoka would be here now...

She was so tired of all her attempts that she had not even tried again for Sayaka, much less a boy she had only known for just over a fortnight.

Homura ran her hand through her hair to flick it. "It's a contract that will affect the most important thing in your life," she told him, keeping to her native language as he was keeping to his. "If you still want answers knowing that, you can ask the Incubator."

"Got a severe case of buyer's remorse after getting into your contract, huh?"

He had no basis, no reason, no _right_ to think of this within a day, _an hour,_ of learning about contracts. Even with Kyouko and Mami as clear examples of how a contract could end in remorse, Sayaka and Madoka had still continued with their contracts. How did Dave Strider understand?

It seemed that he would soon understand a lot more, because miasma was seeping around the office buildings on the other side of the river. A Wraith was going to appear in that location soon If Dave Strider could see Incubators, he was likely also able to see Wraiths.

"If you really want to understand, come with me," she said, before breaking into a run. She did not like the sound of his footsteps following her, but she had more important things on her mind now.

* * *

Dave did actually want off this ride bent on showing things that challenged his view of how cushy this universe was. But it seemed like he was stuck in a pinball machine where revelations were points and whoever was in charge of the flappers was aiming for the high score. He'd started by being slammed into the target of seeing other non-human maybe aliens, rebounded off some details about contracts and names like “Incubator” and “Puella Magi,” and now he was freefalling without any idea of what kind of revelations were hidden in this mysterious mist and how many points they were worth.

His only point of reference right now was Akemi Homura, and even that changed in a flash of purple light when the skirt over that choice ass switched to purple and frilled, and the black stockings on those sexy legs gained a new pattern.

He made himself check out the rest of that outfit. He'd peg it for Magical Girl or Ninja Maid, but given Incubator was a Sanrio rendition of a psychic type alien, he was prepared to be surprised.

Another flash and she had a long slim stick of ebony in her hand. Please for Gog's sake let it not be some form of wizard staff, or neither of the Lalondes would ever let him live it down. Either way that was probably a weapon, and that meant strife mode was coming up.

After Jade's warning about the universe shifting, Dave had started bringing swords to school. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wear his God Tier outfit and its magic pockets to school. Sylladexes weren't a regular feature of this universe either, which meant Dave couldn't use his without some kind of lecture from his friends. In this universe Japan believed in uniforms for everything right down to the bags, and the ones for Mitakihara were way too tiny for a full blown sword. So when Dave reached into his bag, it was a 1/2 bladekind that he pulled out.

He'd meant to put on an extra burst of speed and restore the blade in front of Akemi's wondering eyes. Except that her light show had reached the top of her stick to form an energy rose, which bloomed to extend a glowing string across the stick to turn it into a bow. And that still wasn't enough, because then the light show exploded into wings of solid light on her back, and Akemi flew up away into the sun like a fucking piece of garbage.

Fine, not even the last bit, because from the glare of the sun a barrage of energy arrows rained down into the mist to dispel it and give her a pretty good view of Dave's awestruck expression.

He had a sneaking feeling that she wasn't even watching for his reaction, thanks to the huge white giant that had been revealed when the mist was dispelled. So this was what Akemi was going to fight against.

Dave considered firing up his timetables and pulling out God Tier to put on as good a light show as she had, but whatever reasons this universe had for most humans not seeing a girl with humongous wings of light likely didn't apply to him. A dude with a sword was less likely to be noticed or destabilize the universe. Since Akemi was flying, Dave was going to tap on some of his God Tier powers: optional gravity.

He now put on his extra burst of speed, pushed off and told gravity to fuck off.

Without gravity to hold him back, his leap kept on going and sent him flying towards the white robe of the giant. Just before he made contact, he extended his sword from 1/2 blade to full, and the whole blade sliced through the side of the white giant.

It felt like digging into a pudding cup - there was some tension, but not much. He could hurt the giant, then, if he increased the depth of his slashes.

He flew on to gain some distance and momentum to let him do just that, which was a good thing because a laser beam sizzled through the air where he was a moment ago.

Akemi dropped down from her previous vantage point in a swoop that brought her within earshot. "How are you flying?" she demanded, her Japanese almost too rapid for him to catch.

"How are YOU flying?" he echoed her. "I want a refund, they told me the flight powers club was exclusive."

She didn't bother with a response, letting the arc of her swoop take her to the other side of the giant. Lasers followed in her wake, clearing up a line of attack for him.

Compared to what she was doing now, Dave's flying was really glorified drifting. Dave could no longer swoop and dive with force as he’d done as Davesprite. What Dave could do, though, was change direction on a whim.

He did it just as the giant's attention shifted fully to Akemi, allowing him to slice through the arm reaching out to snatch her from the air. 

The giant screamed, but at least its arm didn't reform. Dave wouldn't have to deal with regeneration bullshit.

His feet found the side of an office building and pushed off to avoid the first retaliatory blast. The next blast was countered by her arrows - apparently they could disrupt the beam.

She was kept busy with the beams for a while, because the giant had switched to those to keep its arm protected. Dave used this chance to land directly on the giant itself. The giant's own body made for a good enough launch pad, allowing Dave to hack and slash as he went.

He'd made it all the way up to the giant's shoulder and was gearing up for decapitation when the giant's remaining hand backhanded Dave away. He skittered over a rooftop until he hit the far end. When he refocused, he saw the screens around the hand flash multi-color before a new beam started to form in the palm, echoed by the same multi-colour flashes around the giant's face.

He didn't know if Akemi had enough arrows to nullify both beams. Welp, time to find out how much direct fire he could endure.

He was all ready to start some time shenanigans when Akemi dove in and wings of light protectively curled around the both of them.

The beams hit her wings, then rebounded towards the giant. Dave didn't get to see the impact, too distracted by her wings dispersing as soon as the beams were reflected. The wings did not reform even when she was blown backwards by the force of the rebound. He grabbed her wrist before she was flung out of reach and was almost dragged off the building, too. A quick dig of his sword into the roof saved them both from tumbling off. He swung her back onto the roof, and somehow she still landed lightly on her feet.

"We have some time before it can fire again," she said, her quick comment in Japanese mirroring how fast she loaded and drew back her bow.

Better to make sure Akemi understood. "How many arrows do you have?" he asked in Japanese as he got to his feet and yanked his sword free. Remembering how the blast almost threw Akemi off the roof, he made sure to step away from the edge.

"Infinite. How deep can your sword cut?"

He gauged the span of the rooftop. "With a running start, I can lop off the head, easy."

She re-positioned herself to give him space. "I'll give you cover."

"No kiss for luck?"

Her response was to fire her arrows around him, leaving only a clear path towards the giant. Dave turned back to face it, broke into a run, and leapt.

Akemi's arrows had started to tear holes in the giant, but it still reached out to nab Dave. He was prepared this time, landing on the back of the hand and using it as a launch pad. The last leap sent him soaring high above the giant before he slashed down.

The head went sliding off a different way from the body. Her arrows disintegrated the two parts so that by the time Dave drifted down to land, it was completely clear of all signs of the giant. All that was left of it were little black cubes that reminded Dave of grist.

With her wings out of action, Akemi had to take the long way around, so by the time she arrived Dave had his sword slung over his shoulder as he looked down at the cubes.

"You can see those, too," she said, relaxed enough to use English.

Since he'd let his blade revert to 1/2 bladekind, he dared a poke at the pile. "Catching all the sights on this vacation to the Twilight Zone, but fuck if I understand what I'm seeing. I need a new tour guide."

"These are grief cubes. They're formed from the grief and hate of humanity that also form Wraiths like the one we fought." She crouched and began gathering them with her bare hands.

Seeing that it was safe, Dave mirrored her. The cubes felt like tiny ice cubes, if by ice he actually meant dry ice. Still, his hand wasn't blistered after he dropped the cubes in her palm. "So the Incubators wanted to get rid of these Wraiths so badly, they hired magical girl exterminators."

"The Incubators benefit the most." Cradling the grief cubes in her right hand, she stood and he followed suit. "Since you have powers already, contracting with the Incubators holds no interest for you."

"We already make a pretty good battle couple. If I stack my power deck anymore, I might become too cool for you."

"Then all you need to remember is your powers mean you don't need a contract."

Akemi stretched out her left hand to him but stopped short of just touching his face. Dave didn't have time to mull that gesture before he felt a jarring note in his head that set his time sense blaring.

He groped for his timetables as the strident note intensified. He could feel it trying to worm in where it would scramble his mind to overwrite it with a new tune from another time.

Then his fingers touched his timetables. With a spin it all righted itself: his mind, his time sense, his awareness that Akemi was looking at him with as much surprise as he was looking at her.

"What _are_ your powers?" she wondered.

He swung up his sword, and as he restored the blade to its full length to point at Akemi's throat, understanding dawned in her eyes.

"I'm the Knight of Time," he said, staring at her down the length of his blade. "What the HELL did you try to do to me?"

* * *

Homura had no idea that her memory manipulation magic was time based until Dave Strider shrugged it off.

In all her timelines, she had never met another magic girl who used time as she did. Now that she knew about Strider's powers, she wanted to ask him everything. How did he parry her magic? Could he tell if she still had access to her other time capabilities? How did timelines work, and how did time affect memories -

But she had dashed the hope of his cooperation when she had tried to wipe his memory of the entire afternoon. Now his blade was at her throat, whole and complete again. She’d thought he had broken it when fighting their shared enemy, and missed when he had used his time powers on it.

If it wasn't after a fight, she would have let him slit her throat to make her escape. It _was_ after a fight though, and her Soul Gem was so murky that it would shatter into a Grief Seed just from her magic's reflexive healing. The Grief Cubes her Soul Gem was now nestled in would take some time to sufficiently restore her magic.

That left her with only the option of explaining her powers as he had requested, without any assurance that she would gain anything. "I have memory manipulation magic," she said, feeling out the correct words in English. "I thought it... easier, if you did not remember magic."

"Just that?" At his question, she wondered if she had used the wrong terms after all. "Your powers felt more like the memory wipe from _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_ high on alternate timeline drugs."

"Eternal Sunshine... of the Spotless Mind?" She sounded the words out, but the phrase still didn't make any sense.

"Movie where boy meets girl who forgot boy who decides to forget girl too, only to run into instant regret." Strider's clipped tone kept Homura from asking how that was an apt comparison. "What you tried to do... You know in some timeline out there I never saw Incubator?"

She nodded as far as the sword at her throat allowed.

"You tried to replace my memories with the memories of the Dave from that timeline." His own words seemed to irk him. "When did we pull a switcheroo that I'm the one doing the exposition dump?"

"I can't tell you what I don't know." He closed the hair's width he'd been keeping between his blade and her throat to press the tip against her bared throat. The tip dug in slightly as Homura said, "This is my first timeline with this magic."

"But not the first time you used it."

"It's not."

"But I'm supposed to believe you haven't wiped enough minds to become an expert."

"Yes."

He was looking straight at her now so she could see in his shades what he saw: her eyes were solemn, resigned, unwavering in how they met his gaze.

Somehow that made him lower his sword and sag against the side of a nearby street light, which he corrected to a slouch. "So you want to keep your powers hush hush, but you can't wipe my memory all _Men in Black_ style. I want to know more, but then I run into your stonewall in this shittiest example of a mobius double reach around. What next?"

She wanted more time to figure out what knowing about time powers was worth, no matter how many questions she had, but she couldn’t get more time, not with her current understanding of her magic. He was right about the paradox, but she was not sure yet if she should show her thoughts were headed in the same direction as his.

Strider wasn't as cautious, already coming up with more ideas. "You think if I tell Incubator I want a contract, he'll tell me something?"

"The Incubator doesn't understand timelines. He told me if only I remembered a timeline, it's as good as a dream that can't be proven by science."

"Fuck that noise. Who needs scientific proof after a bunch of dead bodies?"

The casual reference brought up the memory of Madoka's body, dead by Homura's own hands. Homura pushed her Soul Gem deeper into her gathered Grief Cubes, hating how the memory made her feel. If Strider could talk about dead bodies from other timelines without needing Grief Cubes, maybe there was a way to time travel without all those deaths weighing on her.

"Now you know it's useless to ask the Incubator. We can talk about what you saw during the fight," she offered. "Let's do that tomorrow so you can think of questions."

He kept her waiting for his answer long enough that she knew he did not entirely believe her. Finally he tossed out, "I'll remember to hold you to that, _Homura_." His emphasis of her given name showed he fully intended the sass. He swung his sword back over his shoulder. "Till tomorrow."

She watched him go. There was too much she didn't know about Strider's powers, since she had been too involved in the fight to watch his powers in action. She needed some way to create a safe distance that let her focus on observing.

There was a rustle from behind her before the Incubator bounded over. _So humans can develop powers capable of defeating Wraiths without our intervention. I wonder if his powers are of any use in the fight against entropy?_

"His powers are none of your concern." She tossed all the filled Grief Cubes at once, aiming them some distance away to keep the Incubator distracted. As long as she kept Strider in her sight, the Incubator would have no chance to learn about Strider's powers before Homura did.

* * *

Dave's understanding of the current universe he was in had been thrown for enough loops that it was starting to resemble a roller-coaster. If Dave had known that he'd be dropped into a magical girl universe, he'd have found some way to add more anime to his movie marathons with Karkat.

Just to be sure that he hadn't jumped the rails to a new timeline he kept reaching out with his time sense. His senses showed they were still on the same track in time, no blips interfering with the roller-coaster's path. Dave had to be extra alert for those now that he wasn't the only time player at this gig anymore, although Homura's use of her time powers were unconventional. Dave had never thought of using time powers on MEMORIES, and the giant Wraiths didn't have any memories to manipulate, make it make sense already.

Bro with his anime fixation could probably have figured out Homura's powers. In the process he also would have seen Homura's cageyness, found every available gap between the bars and poked her through it. Then she'd pull a memory swap and knowing Dave's luck, she'd grab the memories of the Bro from the part of the timeline before Dave had even started playing SBURB.

Bro would need to sit this one out for now and leave Dave to do the pitching in this fact finding game to make sure that it wasn't the Puella Magi who were causing the universe to shift. That was, if Homura made good on her promise to talk today.

She showed no signs of wanting to talk at school, keeping her distance and even going as far as ignoring him during lessons. Incubator also did not turn up at either Homura's or Sakura's desk. You could have copy pasted any other day since Dave started school, and he wouldn't have known the difference.

The change happened at lunch break, where both Dave and Homura had managed to hold out until most of the students had left. Dave held out just enough that Homura came over to him.

"You can come join us for lunch on the roof, if you’d like." She was using Japanese, where it was possible to up the level of prissiness to the most formal of formal, “we're all strangers, nothing to see here.”

"There's nothing I'd like more," he'd replied back just as formally. He made sure that she didn’t take his formality too seriously by pairing it with an eyebrow waggle.

Homura's black belt in stonewalling kept her from commenting on his flippant behavior throughout the whole time they headed towards the roof. The third member of the penthouse party was not as highly skilled.

Homura pushed open the door to the roof, and from across the way, Sakura snapped, "What's he doing here?"

"The roof's big enough," said Homura without missing a beat as she sat down next to Sakura.

Dave couldn't let Homura's response slide. "Don't front like you didn't invite me here."

Sakura, with a practicality likely borne from long term exposure to Homura, asked Dave, "Do you know why you're here?"

"Maybe." Just to be sure they were still living in Tropeville and his hunch on transfer students was right, he asked, "What do you know about _Wraiths_?"

He took a step back when Sakura raised her left hand. After what Homura pulled when she raised her left hand yesterday, his sense of self-preservation had jumped from placid green to the orange of caution lights.

But Homura placed her hand over Sakura's to lower it. "He knows because he helped me fight a magical beast yesterday." 

So in Japanese, there was an attempt to mirror the term magical girls by using the same starting word in calling Wraiths “magical beasts”. Dave was going to leave that problem to whoever got it into their mind to make a magical girl themed universal translator, probably Bro. “Wraiths” was going to be the reference Dave mentally subbed in, since that was how Homura had first described what they fought in English.

Sakura was concerned with other things. "You? Letting him help? How can any guy be any better than me?"

"Between Homura trying to be crowned the Queen of Understatements and you channelling the Duke of Disbelief, it's a little hard to feel the love here."

"He was already there when the Wraith appeared."

"And now Homura's trying for the Scepter of Glossing Details. Unfortunately I got my Tiara of Oversharing right here, with the juicy details that I can see the Wraiths and Incubator."

"Kyubey? As strange as that is, that doesn't mean you can fight." For some reason Sakura reached out to examine Dave's left hand. "You don't feel like someone who's contracted either."

"If you're going to tell me not to contract, can I make a request for a new track?"

Sakura dropped Dave's hand. "I don't interfere with others' wishes. Don't get in my way, don't be so weak that you make me pick up your slack, and we're good."

"Wait, wishes? When did we switch up from contracts?"

"If you don't even know what wishes have to do with contracts, you really don't have the same kind of magic as us." She stuffed an _umaibo_ in her mouth, then a red flash of light enveloped her the way purple had enveloped Homura yesterday. From the light, Dave had been expecting a red version of Homura's outfit, but it seemed that uniforms didn't apply to magical girl outfits, even if Sakura's red knee length overcoat had frills he was pretty sure she would never have picked for herself. "Let's see if you're even worth bothering with."

"We're in school." Homura's tone was that of a token protest by one half of an old married couple rehashing rerun #96 of the exact same fight they'd been having since they threw the bouquet into the melee of screaming bridesmaids.

"Then we'd just do ‘no weapons’ tag."

"I know you just can't wait to get a piece of my coolkid action, but we're all about consent here, and I haven't said yes."

"Wraiths don't care if you agreed to a fight." Despite the wasp sting of her words, Sakura released her transformation. "Fighting's better on a full stomach, I guess. Are you eating here?"

"Since Homura scored us reservations at the rooftop restaurant, why not?"

The seating on the roof was a series of long stone benches all vying for the Best Sculpture Award. Dave sat down on the other side of Homura, who had already unwrapped her lunch while he had been deflecting Sakura's attempts to engage in strife. A brief check with his time sense found no time shenanigans. As for other kinds of shenanigans, thanks to Vriska and Terezi, Dave had honed a healthy enough sense of skepticism that would have made Agent Scully proud. Take the entire exchange with Sakura, for example - what were the odds that she wanted to strife and have Dave use powers Homura wanted to know more about? Especially since Sakura started digging into Homura’s apple salad like it had been laid out just for her.

Though he would bet all his earnings from the LOHAC Stock Exchange that Homura hadn't expected Sakura's wide eyed stare when Dave finally got round to tucking into his own lunch. It was the kind of stare that he'd seen before on Jade, when she still had dog ears that would swivel forward in the same direction as her stare. Sakura didn't have dog ears, but she made up for it by upping the intensity of her stare.

He held out his lunch box to Sakura. "Want some?"

Despite never letting up on her stare, Sakura played it cool with her words. "Whaddya have to offer?"

He picked out a skewer of fried squid, which she accepted with a wide grin. "On account of your good taste, you better be ready for tag at lunch tomorrow."

"I'll bring more squid." Then, because Homura's bento was within easy reach, Dave sneaked some of her apple salad. "I think Homura should bring some apple salad, too."

Sakura continued helping herself with a brazenness that almost dared an onlooker to say something about it. "The apple salad is pretty good."

Homura said nothing, even as Dave abandoned hiding his next dig into her apple salad.

* * *

Homura needed to adjust her calculations.

She'd thought that Dave Strider's personality was like the way he fought: quick, flashy, impulsive. Her fight against the Wraith had kept her too busy to notice more. That was why she’d arranged for the spar against Kyouko in the hope that distance would let her play the role of observer better. But it seemed one thing she hadn’t noticed was how Strider could improvise and adapt at a whim.

It seemed his whim right now was to wait her out. Although he followed her out of the school gate in an echo of yesterday, this time he seemed perfectly content to walk in silence instead of bringing up the questions she hadn't answered yet. He’d shrugged off his jacket to his more casual tee underneath, yet another print that looked like the English letters OG until you took a closer look and realised that the letters were formed by records.

If Homura had the luxury of time, she could have waited him out. But the Incubator would not stay away forever.

She could still buy a little more time. "Do you mind if we fly somewhere?" she asked in Japanese so that she could be absolutely sure that she was saying what she meant to say.

He matched her in using Japanese, though he still went into the tangents he was so fond of. "Are we finally getting to the game show segment, or do you have other designs? If we're heading to your love nest, I'm not the kind of guy who puts out on the first date."

"It's not a date," she insisted. Just to be safe, she ducked into a nearby alley before she did the quick version of her transformation. Strider followed her into the alley and thankfully didn't make any comments about being away from prying eyes.

"Do you have to do anything to prepare for flight?" She hadn't been paying attention to him at the start of yesterday's fight; her focus had been on dispelling the miasma before it affected him.

"Clap your hands."

She didn't see how that was relevant but did as she was told. At the sound his feet left the ground, and he drifted. 

"Got to clap louder and harder than that if you want me to go higher."

"There was no one around to clap for you at the start of yesterday's fight, does it work when you clap for yourself? You didn't ask me to clap for you when you cut off the head of the Wraith, I wasn't checking - "

Because Strider was floating, she didn't hear him approach until he flicked his finger against her forehead.

"You're thinking too loud."

Since he didn’t want her to think aloud at him, she chose action - summoning her wings and flying off, leaving Strider to follow.

When she landed on her favorite building, she looked back. Strider was following, just not extremely close because it seemed he was using the side of buildings to gain more momentum. Just before he reached her he pushed off with a great bound and then just let himself fly. That last burst of momentum let him drop down as lightly as he had set off.

"You decided to turn off the angelic light show?" He made a gesture that recalled wings extending from her back.

"It's made of the same energy as my arrows, so it's safer to turn it off when I'm not using it."

"Hang on I got to take a photo of this moment, gonna tag it 'Homura learns to share with the class' and put a blue ribbon on it."

She didn't stay within frame as he messed with his phone. Her usual seat on the edge of the building offered a great view even through the haze of afternoon. Strider switched to snapping a few photos of the landscape before perching on the edge too.

"So are flight powers part of the Puella Magi gig? If I asked, would you and Sakura whip out a matching pair of wings and put on a Victoria Secret's parade?"

"Sakura-san doesn't have wings, though she can leap long distances." Homura idly wondered who could leap further, Sakura or Strider. That reminded Homura of her own questions. "If your powers are time-based, how are you able to fly?"

"I have more than one set of powers in my sylladex, just like you."

"Did you get all your powers the same way?"

"Same source, different button combinations and action sequences." He leaned back on his palms to look up at the clouds, and for some reason switched to English. "Is that how wishes and contracts work? Or is it a to-mah-to, to-may-to thing?"

Answering this question wouldn't help Homura understand Strider's powers, or help him answer her questions on time. But if he contracted with Kyubey, that wouldn't help at all.

"A contract means you have to give up everything for a single wish."

"Everything is a hella big word to be putting in a contract. Does it come with a footnote that says 'all the shit you own', or 'your whole life, bitch', or 'an entire universe, stat'?"

Although Strider was still speaking in English, his Japanese was decent enough to have understood Homura's explanation. Did he suspect something had happened to the universe, even though no one but Homura remembered this universe had been affected by Madoka's reckless wish?

There was no reason to show how odd she found the question when there was safe ground. "If the person making the wish has sufficient potential, the impact of the contract could result in a change in the universe."

"So where are you on the echeladder scale when it comes to potential? You gonna switch up the universe on us?"

It was a good thing that Homura had continued speaking in Japanese. She was not as confident of giving a safe answer in Strider's native language. "I didn't wish to change the universe."

"If you're really serious about leaving the universe as it is, you might want to lay off helping yourself to the buffet of alternate timelines."

"I only have access to alternate memories."

"That's a specifically shitty sliver of the entire time powers suite. Can you unlock more powers?"

"I don't know. Do your time powers tell you if I can?"

Homura had gotten used to Strider's rapid-fire responses that his silence unnerved her. Even though he was now facing her, she had no cues. His expression had gone flat, and his shades only showed Homura her own expression, as carefully held in check.

"You know about multiple timelines and you can access any memory you like. There's a lot you can do with knowledge and a good reach." He switched his gaze to an especially puffy cloud. "As for more powers, that's not a time powers question, it's a Puella Magi question, and the certs on the wall show that's your qualification, not mine. Unless you're up to giving enough personal one-on-one tuition after office hours that I become an expert too."

"Becoming an expert on Puella Magi has no benefits for you."

"I fought a Wraith yesterday, Sakura wants to play magic tag at lunch tomorrow, and we used our powers to fly up to this roof today. I'm living in this universe that's playing by Puella Magi rules, becoming an expert wouldn't hurt."

Homura didn't agree that knowing the Puella Magi system was good for anyone, but it suited her purpose that Strider was interested enough in it to learn more. His questions gave her an excuse to ask her own, and for now his questions were generic enough that she could respond. Maybe she still had the hope of his cooperation.

"By your logic, I should try to understand your _'Knight of Time'_ rules too." She used the same English title he'd used at the end of yesterday's fight, which pulled his attention from the sky back to her.

"You learn fast, young Padawan. The rest of the training regime doesn't come that easy. Do you dare to attempt it?"

She ran her fingers through her hair, and put as much disdain as she could in the flick. "I should be asking if you can even keep up with me."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge THANK YOU to my beta and overall lovely friend [Suikyou](/users/Suikyou/) for still betaing my fic in between the very persistent plot bunny I sent her way <3

They were already on the last flight of stairs when Bro asked Dave, "So where did you disappear to yesterday?"

"You're literally minutes away from finding that out, keep the cat in the bag for a little longer, see how comfy it is hanging out in that sack."

"My bad, I mistook the cat getting its zees on for it passing the fuck out due to suppression of its natural curiosity and breathing."

"You teaching in a fancy school like this with that mouth?"

"None of the other students try my patience like you do, my cover is tight for one more school day. Though I am curious about how spying on you having lunch answers my question."

Dave decided to open the door to the belfry instead of answering that question. Or why a school had a belfry in the first place. Unlike the overdose of glass everywhere else in the school, the windows of the belfry were open arches with no glass in them, probably because they were too high for the average human being to reach.

Neither of the Striders were average human beings. Both of them made the jump to their respective window ledges with ease and looked down at the roof of the other school block. As Dave had guessed, Homura and Sakura were already there with their lunches. Since Homura had Sakura along for lunch, Dave didn't see why Bro couldn't join in his own way. Given that Homura didn’t seem like she was going to play fair, Dave was going to show her rule bending, Strider style. Thank fuck that Bro liked his veneer of secrecy, since that kept him away from Homura and her memory manipulation powers.

Bro cast an eye over the scene with his arms crossed. "Is this a special display of souls with odd behavior?"

"That means even Kyouko Sakura has a shifting soul huh?"

"You brought me all the way up here just to confirm that theory?"

"Let's save all the conspiracy theories for when we do the playback for dessert." With that, Dave pushed off from the ledge, aiming for the roof of the other building. Time to play magical girl tag on his terms.

He mostly let gravity do its thing so that he built up enough momentum, then let his flight powers kick in at the last moment. It saved him from fucking up his ankles, and if the shift in speed exaggerated how soft and silent he landed on the balls of his feet, that was just an added bonus. He spared a touch to make sure his shades were in place before turning to survey his audience.

He had a tough crowd - both Homura and Sakura didn't betray a single shift in their expressions at how he'd stuck the landing, though Sakura put her box of snacks on the bench.

"You seem ready for our game of tag," she said, rocking out of her seat onto her feet. She snapped off a bite from her potato chip and shot him a grin over the jagged half. "Wanna go now?"

He replied in the Japanese that she'd opened with. "Even though there's no time like the present, pretty sure we haven't set out the rules of 'no weapons' tag, minus the no weapons part."

Sakura held up a finger as she started listing off the rules. "Make sure we're not seen. All non-weapons related magic is fair game." She tossed the rest of her chip in her mouth, crunched it loudly before grinning as she finished counting off with three fingers held up. "Don't die."

She reached out to slap him on the shoulder and make him It, but that move was for amateurs and he ninja stepped out of the way. Even Bro was more of a challenge than this. "Too slow," he said, from the wrong side of her outstretched arm.

To her credit she didn't even change her stance, just tried to backhand him. He didn't bother stepping away this time and leaned out of reach instead.

Then had to do a Neo, switching from leaning sideways to leaning back, because Sakura just jabbed forward, intending to thrust her fingers into his chest like Agent Smith from the same classic movie.

"Don't die, huh?" he shot at her.

He didn't wait around for her reply, which came in the form of a knee that would have been planted solidly in his back if he hadn't darted away.

From there it was running. He could break out the true ninja flash step he'd learned since the cradle, but Sakura was brutal on the straights and he wasn't here just to race. So he threw in a bit of parkour, eeling around and over the stone benches in the hopes that he could push Sakura past the mundane.

"Where's the magic?" he challenged as they did a credible imitation of Olympic gymnastics with their vaults over benches, Sakura just one bench behind.

There was a flash of red in her left palm before Sakura lunged at him. He opted for a swan dive instead of a backflip off the bench. That let him spot the red chains she'd suddenly flung from her palm and aim for the gaps between how they were arranged like a laser hallway from an action movie. When he made it to the other side, she dispersed the chains so they didn't get in her way.

"Enough magic for you?" she called out.

"You're still It."

He ran up the fence around the roof to keep from being cornered, and that added a vertical element to their chase from then on. She tried to keep him grounded by blocking his run along the fence with her chains. Now was his chance to flick a shuriken - wait, no weapons - flick a _coin_ at the chains that he now recognised as wards.

That didn't trigger an explosion, so he dared a firm step against the wards to change direction, sliding under Sakura even as she reached down to grab him. Her reach didn't extend that far, and he rolled onto his feet to continue running.

"So you're good at dodging," she said.

"I call it keeping one step ahead."

She summoned her transformation without breaking stride. "Can you stay ahead when you have no space to dodge?"

This time when she summoned her wards in his path they were a solid lattice with no gap or give. But he'd seen her summon and disperse the wards so the solidity was an illusion.

He reached out and reversed the flow of time for just the wards.

His powers rippled out from his fingers, sending the links of her wards peeling away from his touch and disappearing into nothingness. He didn't look back to check how her wards disintegrated in his wake, because he could feel their personal clock winding back to nothing.

She put on a burst of speed he hadn't seen her reach before to dart in front of him. "What was that?"

"Catch me and maybe I'll tell you."

She tried to grab his collar, and this time he had to flash step to avoid her. He was pretty sure all this speed was a post transformation thing, along with the new complexity of her wards. What else was she hiding?

He remembered Homura mentioning Sakura had no wings, so he feinted a vault over the fence lining the roof.

Something whipped across his vision, so fast that his brain defaulted to register segments of wood linked with chain as nunchucks. He'd shifted to avoid jumping off the roof and the weapon before realising that nunchucks didn't come with _that_ many segments, especially since the segments on the other side of him were fast closing in like a literal clothesline instead of the wrestling move. No matter, he'd learned how to avoid both -

There was an almighty crack that reminded Dave of the clash of wooden swords that Bro sometimes insisted on using for sparring. When Dave landed he found Homura was standing between Sakura and himself, transformed and holding her bow in its unstrung form. Sakura yanked the wooden segments out of the arc Homura's bow had knocked them into, then pulled them together to form a wooden spear.

"You both broke the rules. No weapons," Homura said, pointing her bow at Sakura.

"I wasn't using it as a weapon, I was trying to pull him in with something that he couldn't break."

Homura ignored Sakura's explanation and pointed at Dave, "Make sure you aren't seen. If you jumped off the roof and flew, anyone could see you."

Technically Dave had broken the rule of not being seen even before the game had started. He deliberately didn't look up at the belfry, where he was sure Bro's shades would be glinting in the afternoon sun. With both Sakura and Homura showing their transformations and weapons, Bro should have enough fodder to churn his theories.

To Homura, Dave settled for a, "Yes ma'am," in English, because he was pretty sure the irony wouldn't parse in Japanese.

She didn't show any appreciation for his consideration. "Are the two of you done with showing off? Unless you want to try breaking the last rule, too."

Seeing that the last rule was not dying and it wasn't the done thing to attempt murder of his classmates, he replied, in Japanese for Sakura's benefit, "I'm good, though I still don’t know why you wanted all this show and tell."

Homura ignored his commentary, turning a questioning gaze to Sakura, who shrugged. "Well I frightened him enough that he was going to jump off the roof to avoid me, so let's give him a break."

"Is that the cover story you made up to keep under wraps how much I owned you?"

"Watch it, Strider. I still owe you a smack for what you did to my wards."

"Smack?" Japanese was too limiting for the pun he wanted to make, so he switched to English, "You say smack, I raise you the example of my smackdown today."

"Stop talking smack in a language she doesn't understand." Homura eased back into Japanese with Sakura, "He just earned another smack from you."

"I'll collect tomorrow." Sakura linked Homura's arm in hers. "Ne, can I have your apple salad?"

"Neither of you get any."

While they were busy debating the merits of Homura sharing apple salad, Dave glanced up at the next building and caught a flash of a hat tilt before the belfry was empty again.

* * *

When picking out an apartment, Dave and Bro had decided to save money by using the living room as Bro's bedroom, so they usually had their meals sitting on the futon-sofa mash-up Bro had managed to dig up. They'd also gotten used to co-opting the rooftop of their apartment as their own space since Houston, and they did the same now in Mitakihara. 

Today Bro had brought their takeaway to the roof. This rooftop was on the other end of the spectrum from the school rooftop: gritty and unswept, filled with old school antennas and city life debris, so the only real space to sit was the ledge where Bro was sitting too. 

"That inspired by my lunch today?" Dave called to Bro's back.

"Needed a bit more space to think," said Bro, eyes still on the horizon, as if he hadn't been thinking all through the journey to the supermarket and back home. Dave still sat about an arm's length apart in case Bro needed that space, too.

Or maybe Dave needed that space. Whenever they hung out on any roof since entering this universe, it was for sparring or tinkering with gadgets as Bro tried to use 21st century resources to replicate 25th century technology. The last time they'd just sat and talked was... back when in SBURB, that first time.

The scenery was a lot better than it'd been in SBURB at least, though Mitakihara was populated with its share of crazy characters. Like the examples that Dave was going to list. "Yeah, there's a lot to think about, with magical girls and a new type of alien."

"Alien? When did you see aliens in Mitakihara?"

"Two days ago when we did a rap off in class, an alien was among the adoring audience, on the prime seat of Sakura's bag. Well, no one corrected me when I called it an alien in front of it and Homura."

"So that wasn't Sakura's soul doing its weird thing."

"I'm not the heart guy, but I don’t know how you mistook Sakura as the type to have a mutant Hello Kitty with extra ears and squirrel tail representing her soul."

"Souls aren't some Native American spirit animal things, they're more like energy and shapes."

Dave had assumed that he was able to see Incubator because of his powers, but Bro was refusing to fit any of the theories. “For a dude who's made puppets and robots, there’s no way you don't believe in aliens that look like animatronic stuffed animals. Are you really sure you only saw the alien as a glowy shape?"

"I'm pretty sure I just saw glowy shapes, including some that were moving around."

“Sakura's shifting soul.” Too many mysteries were starting to build up, Dave was going to focus on the mystery that couldn't be solved by pointing out an alien bunnycat the next time he saw it.

Bro seemed to agree, because he'd focused on souls, too. “I was too quick to name it, I’m going to have to workshop that term.”

“You do that. I’ll be eating.” Today's dinner was supermarket sushi marked way down for clearance. Gotta love the Japanese's dedication to freshness. He reached out for a piece with his bare hands, and earned a rap on his fingers from the chopsticks pack Bro was wielding. “C’mon! You take forever to get your terms just right!”

"It’s not about the sanctity of the naming process. With manners like yours, I'm surprised those magical girls let you eat with them." Bro held up two options, a pack of wet wipes and an unopened chopsticks pack.

"They’ve got manners? You didn't hang around for the way Kyouko Sakura hovers up food."

"I don't need to know what Sakura gets up to with her mouth."

"Gross. Are you sure your title was Prince? It's looking a lot like perv from over here."

"I'm not the one who went straight to the perverted take on that statement." Bro mimed tossing both options over the side of the building, which gave Dave the chance to snatch the chopsticks from him. Then it was time for sweet sweet sushi.

Not that Bro gave him much time to enjoy it, because he asked, “So were you hanging out with Akemi because I mentioned she had a shifting soul, or do I have to quiz you about bases?”

Dave threw his chopsticks before he remembered that he was using them to eat, and that Bro was too good to be surprised by that simple of an attack. At least one half bounced into the shopping bag when Bro slapped away the attack, though the other fell in a pile of litter that Dave was not even going to look at if he wanted to keep his dinner down.

"What the hell, Bro. Who’s the perv now?"

"The entire rumour mill is going on about you, Akemi and how you keep disappearing with each other, and some of the rumours have gotten pretty colourful. I bet there's some truth to them, since I've gone from seeing you all the time to never."

"You're just jealous that I'm able to work on the mysteries of the universe and get in some eye candy at the same time. Master of efficiency, that's me." Dave speared a sushi with his remaining chopstick and mostly got it in his mouth before the jab destroyed its structural integrity.

"If you're that efficient, then educate me on what's the mystery of this universe." Bro flicked the wet wipes at Dave, who snagged it out of the air between two fingers, like that was even a challenge.

"Magical girls. If we figure out their power levels, we can find out which one is making the universe shift. Or maybe it's a collective effort, like a magical girl revolution. I don't think either Homura or Sakura are at universe breaking levels, but I needed a second opinion based on the dope demo I arranged."

Dave got around to using the wet wipe and helping himself to more sushi as Bro offered his opinion, "You're not entirely wrong about their power levels, but you're only looking at what they did during the demo. It's a lot more complicated than that when you add in the soul aspect of it. The one thing that's clear from Sakura's demo is souls are magic."

"Like the slogan on your magical horse cartoon."

"Let's not get the two magic systems mixed up until we get definite proof that magical ponies are part of the system here. What I mean by their souls are magic is that when they generate weapons and use their magic, they're really using parts of their souls. Akemi's staff, Sakura's spear and wards, they're all parts of their souls extended and molded into new forms, or in Sakura's case projected from her in the form of wards."

"What, even the wards were part of her soul?" Suddenly just a smack seemed to be getting off light.

"They seem pretty used to losing bits of it. Which brings me to another thing that I noticed. There are a lot of people in Mitakihara that are carrying bits of other souls. There's a guy in your class, Kamijou I think, there's a bit of soul over his hand that seems to be keeping it in working condition. Even the magical girls - Sakura's carrying a bit of the same soul that Akemi is. If souls are magic, and with the number of people in Mitakihara carrying bits of other people's souls, I think this isn't your Sailor Moon-type of magical girls where only a selected few have magic. My theory is that magical girls are built into this particular universe, and that they have their own equilibrium."

"If you're right, and the magical girls have their own equilibrium, why is the universe shifting?"

"I have another theory - it's us."

"That's exactly what Jade’s been afraid of, she hasn't done anything big since we arrived - "

"It's not a Space powers thing in specific. Sakura was able to sense your powers during that demo. A universe made of magical girls would probably have the same sensitivity to our powers, which are from SBURB and definitely not native. It may be shifting in response to detecting us."

Dave stared down at the platter of sushi, but had officially lost his appetite. So much for being careful and playing the waiting game. "So it wasn't enough for Lord English to just fuck us over with time, he's getting the universe to do the dirty work for him too."

"Maybe. It's just a theory at this point. Even if we prove the universe has detected us, we have no idea if it's hostile to our existence. I'll keep looking into the soul thing, and it'd be great if you could get something out of those magical girls you lunch with. Or the alien only you can see. We need all the data that we can get."

Data was all fine and good, but Bro hadn't included other important things in his plan. "Seems like we can take the limiters off our powers now, since the universe is fucked either way."

"We could, but there's nothing wrong with how we're using our powers right now."

That was why Dave never even bothered Bro with the same offer he always presented to Jade. Bro was the thinky kind of guy, and Dave's powers were known information that Bro had already factored into scenarios upon simulations upon scenarios, a nestled gambit pileup that still was all talk and no _action_. Somehow Bro had looked at Dave with his time powers and the consequences of not having two dead friends and _still_ came to the conclusion that the current equilibrium without Jake and Jane was fine. Even now, when Bro thought there were no consequences to Dave using his time powers, he didn't ask Dave to use them, even though Dave not using his powers until the final fight was why Lord English - 

Dave rose as the guilt from the unfinished thought turned his stomach even more. "I better get my beauty sleep on so I can get your precious data on the current equilibrium."

"Look, there was always the possibility the universe would have detected us, powers or not. Don't beat yourself up about the demo. Just ask Jade if there's been any exceptional blips in the universe today."

As if _that_ was what Dave was bothered about. He left Bro and his trashy theories on the roof with more of their own kind.

* * *

Walking to school in the morning should not be the chore Homura was finding it now.

Homura had not directly observed Strider's time powers before due to her focus on the Wraith fight. She'd made sure she didn't have that distraction when he was playing tag with Kyouko. When he had used his time powers on Kyouko's wards, she had seen the time lapse of the wards reversing, right down to the flow of magic back to their very source.

Now everything that she saw around her had its very own time trail of after-images. Birds in mid-flight still showed the ghostly shadow of where they had been feeding before being startled. Students greeting each other waved with the after image of their hands in various positions, like flip comic panels translated into 3D. The top of the pedestrian crossing lights still glowed ghostly red, stark against the currently lit green in the bottom half.

Homura crossed the road wondering if she would see her own time trail if she looked in the mirror. Was her magic always this sensitive, and she had had nothing to look at before, or was it Strider's powers?

She had been disconcerted enough by the change yesterday that she'd skipped patrol again, and also told Strider she was busy after school. He'd shrugged and left with Strider-sensei, so she'd taken the gamble that the Incubator wouldn't approach him while an adult was around. But now the change in her perception had gone on too long for her to ignore. Would Strider notice too?

When she first saw Dave Strider in the classroom, she thought that the oddity she was seeing was more of the time trails. The actual, flesh and blood Strider seated at his desk. Layered like an after-image on top of him was a ghostly version that was on a walking loop. That looked like a delayed video, instead of the static images at points in time typical of the time trails Homura had seen so far.

Then she looked again, now with the part of her time magic that knew how long it had been since she arrived at school, and got her answer.

She approached the Dave Strider from a future of just a few hours later (what had he done to make that possible?). Future Strider was lounging back in his seat and was somehow essaying amusement with how languid his posture had gone rather than with a more typical smile. "You could ask me your questions, but you might want to save them for that one," he said in English, jerking his head towards the general direction of the school gate. "Avoiding time paradoxes and all that jazz."

She guessed "that one" meant the ghostly Strider not in the room. For the benefit of the curious onlookers, she replied in Japanese. "We're starting a new topic in Maths today."

It was a good thing he replied in English, because he offered, "If that's what it'll take to avoid a paradox, I'll test out how ironic taking notes for Math can be."

If she stayed, all her questions about what new time power he was using today would have to wait out the long hours until lunch. She'd never fast forwarded time before, didn't even know if she was capable of that now unless she talked to Strider. Meaning the duplicate who was walking towards the school gate, according to the Strider in the classroom.

She turned on her heel, not stopping to acknowledge Kyouko's expression of surprise as she passed. Even without that detour, Homura only managed to catch up with the Strider at the school gate.

This Strider had the same personal time as everything else around him. Present Strider cast one glance at her and said in English, "There are no U-turns programmed on this route, no matter what you want to say as my personal GPS."

All of the languid that she'd read in the future duplicate's posture was turned on its head here, a suppressed tension coiled in his hard stance with only the quickness of his steps as an outlet. No wonder the Present Strider had decided against school today, even though there was a future version of him that was in class right now. Present Strider had even taken off his jacket, his record themed t-shirt making him look less like a student and more like a random tourist. She kept up with Present Strider in both pace and language.

"Where will you go?"

"Want to show me where the coolkids go to hang out in Mitakihara?"

"With your standards? What could I suggest?"

"If Mitakihara had any place at all that could reach my sick levels of cool, it'd be on the global map. Show me what you know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help me out! I have more than 10 pages of Dave and Homura hanging out in an arcade, should I just post all of it in the next chapter, or should I edit to make it shorter?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By popular demand, the full arcade experience with no cuts.
> 
> Part of the credit goes to my beta and overall lovely friend [Suikyou](/users/Suikyou/) for telling me I cannot delete the bit where Homura gets to curbstomp Dave, and still squeeing over everything during beta <3

Homura brought him to the arcade, because thanks to Kyouko, that was what she knew. Strider should have looked half washed out among the vivid colors of the machines, but he'd somehow relaxed into the setting, which was a better look on him than his earlier tension.

"Not bad, for a guesstimate of where the house pet breed of coolkid would hang out," he tossed over his shoulder in English.

Looking at the flashing arcade displays was like looking at multiples of the pedestrian crossing lights, so she kept her gaze focused on Strider. At least he and the ghostly overlay of the future him at school didn't have multiple trails that interfered with her vision. She was also relieved that the time trails didn't extend to sound.

"Alright. I know I'm a snack all fresh from the candy shop that you can't wait to get a bite of, but why are you just staring?"

She kept to English because she was asking time powers related questions. "Why are there two of you?"

He froze for a second; she measured the pause with her time magic until he deliberately relaxed his stance. "Is my evil twin standing behind me right now? Do I have to challenge him for the right to be the one true Dave Strider?"

"There's a Strider that's at school right now. I can see him when I look at you. I also saw you when I met him this morning. He told me to look for you."

"He told you to look for me." Strider repeated. "So you can see every Dave that's kicking about the timeline at the same time even when they're not in the same place."

"Every… Dave?" Homura thought she knew English, but wasn't sure how the word “every” could be applied to Dave. "How many Daves are there?"

"Just one other Dave today, though there’s been as many as I can keep running on different bits on this hamster wheel of a time loop at other times." He must have noticed the whirring of her mind, because he asked, "Did you ever find the ability to go back in time in your time powers package or did they lose that in the mail too?"

"Not in this timeline," she had to admit, because this was a part of her magic that she missed, and there was a part of her that was curious if she could learn something from Strider.

"Wow, do you ever have a specifically shitty sliver of the time powers suite. I guess you never got the multiple selves add-on." Despite how flippant his voice was, there was an odd twist to his mouth on the last sentence. Yet his voice remained just as flippant when he changed the topic. "Don't suppose you have the card with credits for this arcade?"

She didn't, but it was easy enough to buy one. Even though she was in full school uniform during school hours, the owner didn't blink an eye. Card in hand, Strider headed straight to the rhythm machines, stopping at the machine with the most blinding neon on the screen. Thankfully it was single player, because the time trails were still a problem even with images on a screen.

He got a game started and was tapping away at the buttons and the screen. If he had the same vision problems as Homura, he wasn't showing it. It was easier for her to just close her eyes and listen to the clack of buttons, which were perfectly in time with the notes of the music.

"How can you see more than one Dave at once when they're not in the room?" he said, button punches slotting neatly between his words even while keeping pace.

Closing her eyes helped with both replicating her internal thoughts in English and the vision problems. Despite her concentration, explaining in English was still a slow and tedious process. "There's the you of the present. I see you the normal way people without time sense would see."

Strider made it clear he was humoring her just by the sound of his "Mmhmm." Though that might have been because the lyrics had kicked in and he had to tap to the rhythm of those instead.

"Then there's the you of the... future. But he left the future to return to this time in the past. Since he's close by at this moment in time, I can see the ghost of him when I look at you now."

"Is he drifting by my shoulder and making funny faces?"

Future Strider would have remembered this conversation, so Homura looked just to be sure. But the ghostly overlay was still kicked back in his seat. "No. I just see him sitting while superimposed on you."

"Sounds rough. If I saw things like that, I wouldn't bother with Past and Future Daves, either."

"I've never seen things this way before."

"There's already so much awesome with just one of me, two have reached unbelievable levels of cool you have never witnessed before."

"There was only one of you when Sakura-san was trying to tag you yesterday, yet I saw her wards across various stages of disintegration when you used your powers."

"Got to run that one by me again. You're seeing more than just Daves?"

"I've been seeing distortions in time since yesterday's tag."

Her eyes drifted close again as she listened to him bring the song to a perfect finish. Even the machine thought so, with its long applause and gushed compliments.

Strider didn't spend time basking in the compliments. "Looks like I can't leave any questions for later. Are there any more surprises? Are you and Sakura-san twins separated at birth who can only recognize each other from your identical amulets?"

She didn't get the reference, but she knew the answer was, "No."

"Right, let's get into this paper mâché of a mystery, peeling aside the sodden newspapers before the layers harden. Let's start with your vision. You've only been seeing these distortions of time since tag?"

Her closed eyes let her picture what it had looked like to her then. "Since you reversed time on Sakura-san's wards. I didn't see a smooth process. I could see where her magic was working to reform the wards, but that wasn't possible because the flow of time was being reversed for them. So I saw the after-images of what the wards would have been if they'd moved through time naturally. Since then I've been seeing the after-images of... everything."

"Are shifts along the timeline so alien to your magic?"

"Not for me. I've done that before. But I've not come across another magical girl who reverses time."

"So this is the first time you've seen time winding that you weren't responsible for."

"I've never seen time being reversed for things at all. I've only reversed time on my own eyes."

Her eyes were closed, so the feel of his finger tilting up her chin was a surprise that startled her into opening her eyes to meet his gaze. Strider kept studying her eyes. "Now that you've pointed it out, I can see it. You were that precise in keeping the time winding to your eyes, huh?"

In this universe she didn’t have any special memory of fixing her eyes. The memories that she had but had not actually lived through were that she'd dropped her glasses during a Wraith fight and realized she didn't need them to see. She’d long assumed that her eyes had been enhanced from the process of becoming a magical girl. How did Strider detect time winding on her eyes?

Not that she could sort out this tangle of thoughts while his finger was tucked under her chin. Hadn't he been standing at the rhythm machine earlier? When had he gotten so close?

Thankfully he only studied her eyes for a minute longer before he removed his hand. "I think I have an idea. But I'd need your bow."

She remembered the only other person they'd seen in the arcade was the owner, and his counter was behind the DDR machines; they weren't likely to be seen here. Just to be safe, she opted for the quick version of her transformation and the unstrung version of her bow, even though that made ghostly versions of her bow extending into existence flicker across her vision.

He examined her bow, which should not be making her feel as tense as she was when he was examining her eyes. She had to hold herself still when he cupped his hands around the top of her bow.

Then time tugged on her bow to draw out the rose atop of it, which marked the start of the after-images from her wand being drawn towards the bud. As she watched, Strider coaxed the energy rose to unfurl with its usual flare of magic, the opposite of what he'd done with Kyouko's wards. Perhaps that was why instead of creating more after-images, all the current after-images were drawn into this focal point. When the rose reached full bloom, only a single ghostly outline remained on the fringe of the magic flare of the rose. Strider, too, no longer had the image of Future Strider superimposed over him.

Now that he had finished what he set out to do, Present Strider was mirroring Homura's tension for the first time since he'd reached out to examine her eyes. She wondered where all this tension was leading to, and what would happen if she followed it.

Instead, she took a deep breath and tilted her bow away from the cup of his hands to rest on her shoulder.

His outstretched hands looked too empty now, but he quickly dropped them. "Please tell me that did something for your vision."

It wasn't a 100%, since there was still a single stubborn outline that clung to everything she looked at, but she was not doing that again. "It's better now, thank you." She released her transformation and waited for him to return to his game.

Instead of going back to the rhythm machine, he spared her a tense nod as he headed deeper into the arcade, where Kyouko rarely went. Curious despite herself, she followed.

The depths of the arcade was where the racing game and shooter games were set up. Strider stopped at one of the shooter games and took up both of the guns. She wondered if he meant to play against himself. But he started trying to fit the guns together, finally clicking the guns on top of each other as the loading screen switched to the character screen. He tried to aim the resulting clunky mishmash at the screen, gave up and separated the two guns for better dexterity. It was a good thing that she was no longer seeing the full set of after-images, because the joined together guns hung in the air for a second before fading away.

There were a lot of characters, yet somehow Strider managed to find a female character in a sexy cowboy outfit. He spent a long time on this character's preview, as if to make sure Homura absolutely couldn't avoid seeing his terrible choice.

When he finally selected a mission, she found herself looking at a pretty decent model of Shibuya, much as she remembered it from the last time she'd been to Tokyo. The game hadn't bothered to animate the crowds, so that was where the realism stopped. As if the futuristic guns and the outfit the character was showing off weren't obvious signs of that.

Then the mission started, and despite herself she was drawn to the game play on the screen. Strider was able to make the character zip to the top of the building in a reasonable replica of his flight before free running.

He rounded a billboard, and there was a game character flying in mid-air. Even as the screen placed a red box around that character, it shot at the player. Strider raised both guns and fired off shots, making his cowgirl on the screen do the same. The shootout between the two characters was interrupted by a missile that blew them out of the air. Strider joined his guns and his cowgirl switched to a missile launcher that fired off a missile much like the one that had been fired at her.

Homura should have been satisfied with her own bow, but it was different enough in feel from the range of weapons that she used to carry in her shield. Nostalgia was not a good reason to risk her weapon raids without her time magic, so she had gone a long time without touching any other weapon. She must be missing it more than she thought, if she was that interested in seeing a replica of the visual effects in an arcade game.

"See something you like?" Strider asked. His shoot out at high noon gambit was failing, judging by the multiple times he was switching targets to deal with fire from new directions.

"You should probably take cover."

"Cover? We fight like men. And ladies, imaginary game ladies included," he said. She let the game make the point for her when a ninja flashed onto the screen out of nowhere and shot Strider's character point blank. The splayed image of his character dispersed and Strider fired at the screen to return his character back to Shibuya crossing. "C'mon, don't you think it's fun to just dash around rooftops and admire the CGI by some poor overworked animator?"

"Your mission timer is counting down."

Strider refocused on the game to get his character back into position, and finally got the ninja that got rid of him, then the rest of the characters that had been trying to converge on him. His cowgirl shifted into a victory pose.

As the opening screen for the second round replaced Shibuya, Strider said, "You want to show me how your alternate universe cowgirl would play this?" He held out the guns to her.

It was only one round, Homura reasoned, as she took the guns from him.

The black of the guns had made her miss seeing the joysticks stuck on the back, along with a red button. She hurriedly looked over the rest of the guns, trying to see what else she had missed. In addition to the slot on top, there were side slots too, making her wonder if Strider had missed more permutations.

He seemed pretty confident when he drew the guns from the next console with the same game, though he explained in English. "Left analog is for directions. Press forward to go forward, left, right, reverse." He saved her from having to ask what analog meant when he moved his thumb on the left joystick in the directions he had mentioned. "Right red button, one to jump, more to dash. Right analog is for switching targets. I think only the right trigger works when you link the guns."

"Thank you." She turned her attention back to the screen to find that Strider's explanation had conveniently timed out her chance to change any of the options, especially switching the character. While the character was strutting her stuff she glanced at Strider, who as usual was betraying none of the glee he must be feeling.

"Show me what you got!" the game challenged, and the mission started.

She pressed on the red button to get her character to jump, but it only hopped in place. She was figuring how to coordinate her left and right thumbs when another game character dashed towards her. She fired back, which made the character stop out of range of her pistols, and fired something that did not look like a missile launcher.

Time for her to try the other gun permutation. She used the side slots and was pleased with the rifle that she got out of this arrangement, especially when she fired this time and found the other character was in range. Plus, if she kept the trigger down it fired off multiple shots. She hadn't thought about how she missed machine guns until that capability was within her reach again.

She was too immersed - her character was fired upon by another enemy. She turned to fire on the newcomer and realized her target was not red. She fumbled with the right joystick until the target turned the right color, but by then her character was laid out from all the gunfire.

When she aimed at the map, she put her character on a rooftop. With this distance she reconfigured her guns to a rocket launcher and made sure she adjusted the right joystick before she took aim.

The explosions were really very satisfying. She took as many shots as she could from the roof before the shooting attracted the other characters. She separated her guns to cover more enemies, then remembered she was constrained by her targets again. In the process of fumbling with both joysticks at the same times she figured out how to jump - a combination of the red button and the left joystick. Now that she was a little more mobile she relied more on guns and fell back into the joy of dual wielding.

After learning to aim and fire whatever weapon she liked, she got rid of the enemy characters easily and finished the mission. Strider leaned into her view of the victory sequence. "Do you need another shot at the game? Are you down from the high of buildings yet?"

He was still speaking in English, so she did the same. "I don't need an arcade game to get to the top of buildings."

"Right." He made the same gesture he had when he last referred to her wings as an angelic light show. "What about guns huh? What's your excuse for that?"

"I need to aim my bow and arrows."

"Uh huh. You're talking to an American from the land that put the West in Wild West, so I know aim doesn't tell you what type of gun to use when. Do you have a secret magic lair filled with guns?"

"Not in this timeline."

"Damn. I was just thinking of sending a Dave on a quest to the past to find the legendary Handgun Homura."

"You don't need to go back in time. Get me some weapons and I can show you."

"Hang on, I just had the most novel idea. You're going to be so astounded by my suggestion. Wait for it." Even as he deliberately drew out each phrase in those sentences, Strider pulled out the guns of the neighboring console. "How about we play another round of this game one on one?"

"The most astounding idea," Homura replied with the driest tone she could muster.

"No need to applaud, just do me the favor of finding the right menu."

At least the character menu was up again. She made sure to select her character first, picking the first female character that wasn't the cowgirl, a girl shouldering a large rocket and wearing more clothes. Strider repeated his tragic choice. They managed to find the store network option, and since they were the only ones playing right now, the game matched them up quickly.

"Let's go back to the future with Shibuya." He picked Neo Shibuya, which pulled up a future version of Shibuya with circuit lines on the roads and glowing pink patches. Homura checked the mini radar at the bottom of the screen while the characters were striking their opening poses, and found that the game had deposited her and Strider on different ends of the map.

When the banner marking the start of the game lifted, she was ready with the right combo to dash forward. To her surprise, her character hopped on her rocket to dash forward.

"That is so unfair," Strider groaned, even as he had his cowgirl bound onto the upper level, which was done up in the green of a park.

Homura tried out the pink patch on the raised stage, and when that didn't cause any damage to her rocket girl, she had the character ride her rocket from the stage to the same level as his character. On Homura's side of the park, she had the benefit of trees, and she used that to get her character closer to Strider's.

"We're going to time out at this rate, so tragic," he said, even as his character was taking the scenic route in the park and staying out of range.

So he thought. She stacked her guns, lined up her target and fired.

Strider's character let out a shriek as the rocket missile sent her right out of the park to the level below with the stages. Strider on his part got her up and running, somehow zipping her quickly to right under Homura's character - just on the wrong level. Homura had her character dash towards the edge of the park, re-orientated her guns that by the time her character stepped off the edge and used her rocket to coast downwards, she was already firing her rifle.

Strider returned fire with the right gun this time, though he put more attention into zipping up a nearby ramp to end up back on the park level again. Homura mirrored his movements, but by the time her character reached the top, his character was already waiting for hers with a barrage of gunfire.

She returned fire, then again retreated to the corner of the park shaded by trees. It was Strider's turn to switch to something with stronger firepower to shear the park of its trees, though he didn't have the same luck with a Neo Shibuya map that Homura had her rocket girl dart behind. That turned out to be a ploy to get more distance between their characters so his cowgirl could drop back down to the lower level and hide under Homura's character again.

She let him use this trick, making sure his cowgirl was hemmed in by the park level and other items originally meant for cover before sending her rocket girl dashing over the edge, her character's rocket allowing her to dash a lot faster than Strider's character. She downed his cowgirl with a missile, then kept it down with gunfire until the character dissolved and they got back to the starting screen for round two.

"I'm starting to think that map wasn't challenging enough for you, how about something more old school?"

"So you would like to be schooled across all eras."

"Seems like guns aren't the only thing being fired this morning. Unfortunately there's one more round to go before we decide who gets to be Sensei." He fired the gun at a new setting, and Homura found her character on a night dimmed street with cherry blossoms in the background.

She urged her character into a dash, and from the mini radar Strider had his character do the same. There were two buildings of differing heights next to Homura's character - she had the rocket girl leap onto the shorter building. The radar showed Strider running alongside a road that ended directly ahead of her character, so she wasn't giving up any tactical advantage yet by choosing the shorter building, though she did urge her character to go faster. She found the road that Strider's character was supposed to be on was lined with traditional buildings, but no Strider was in sight.

She navigated her character in a cautious run along the road, just to be sure she hadn't missed something. This street was still empty, though now the radar showed Strider's character was along another parallel street. Trust Strider to find another way to be "under" her character even without an upper level to work with. It suited her fine; she did prefer to be on rooftops anyway. She had her character make the leap.

Strider was already waiting for her and he'd figured out two things: missiles and that a barrage of missiles that wasn't possible in real life had been built into the game mechanics. There were too many explosions for Homura to see clearly, and by the time she got the target lock onto Strider's character, the cowgirl was already up close and firing on Homura's character.

Homura gave up on the high ground, dropping down to an open air eating area. She was briefly distracted by the kanji burning in the hills, an Obon ritual out of sync with the cherry blossoms she had seen earlier. Strider made use of her distraction to fire at Homura's character again. From her new position, Homura spotted a lower roof that she had her character take shelter on while she switched to a missile launcher, before going back on the same level as Strider's character.

It was Strider's turn to face multiple missiles, though he'd been prepared for it and maneuvered his character so only half of the barrage struck home. He had his character duck onto the same lower roof that Homura's character had been on just moments before, then focused on doing little leaps with bursts of gunfire on the upwards arc of each of his leaps.

There was no similar cover available to Homura's character now unless she leapt back onto the same lower roof, though that would make Strider's current strategy moot for the both of them. Even though it annoyed her, she had to resort to the same tactic that Strider had when he was first playing - a high noon shootout with their guns on the highest power.

She configured her gun to the missile setting. Next to her in the arcade, Strider mirrored her movements. "Time to see who's fastest on the draw?" he drawled.

"Let's."

Strider sent his character into another leap and they both held down their triggers. When the explosions cleared, it was Homura's character who was dancing in victory. Strider's character slumped to the ground and threw her guns over her shoulders in disgust.

"Welp. Shouldn't have gotten into a rocket launcher shoot out with a rocket girl." He pretended to toss his guns over his shoulders in an echo of the character he’d been playing, before holstering them properly in the machine. With a pang, Homura returned the guns, too.

Some of her reluctance must have shown, because Strider asked, "If you're that good with guns, why'd you give up the gunslinger gig?"

"I didn't give it up. In this timeline, I have never fired a gun."

"Another one of those things that are 'not in this timeline'. It doesn't feel like you pulled on other timelines to reel in someone else's memories of guns and put them in your head. But it's my turn to play Sphinx and pull a riddle from this tangled yarn of time power problems - if your time turning powers weren't in this timeline, how did you fix your eyes?"

She wondered what time felt like to him, since he was able to detect the time magic that she'd used for manipulating memory and fixing her eyes. Maybe then she'd be able to find the answer that both Strider and she wanted to know. “I don’t know,” she had to say, in an echo of what she’d said when he’d asked her about her memory manipulation powers.

“For someone with memory powers, there’s a lot that you don’t know.”

“If I knew about my time magic, I would have used them on more than just memories. When I still had full control over my magic, every time I went back in time I've reversed time for my eyes again."

"That sounds more like time reset than time turning. Explains the lack of multiple Homuras, if you had to _Groundhog Day_ everything."

"What does a day have to do with groundhogs?"

Strider switched to Japanese. "I guess it's _The Girl Who Leapt Through Time_ in Japan, complete with going back in time to save your friends."

She was surprised by the sudden surge of hope she felt at Strider's statement. He was only describing an event in the movie where the main character travelled back in time to save her friends from a train; it didn't mean he knew what Homura had been doing, no matter how much it felt that way.

She focused on letting him know she caught the reference, switching to Japanese too to say, "I had a similar type of ability that let me change my actions."

"Had. What's the matter, you used up your time leaps and have to leave us to go back to the future?"

"This is the future after I've used up my leaps."

"Are you hiding a device like the one they used to leap through in the show, on top of your bow and the guns you never used in this timeline?"

Homura’s many weapons were thanks to the wish that Madoka had made, but that wasn't Strider's specialty. The first time she’d regained her memories of her other timelines, she’d instinctively summoned her shield only to find that it no longer worked. 

But he’d guessed that she had another weapon, and if he could restore Homura's shield the way he restored his swords, maybe - "You could find out how I leapt through time, on one condition."

"The kind of condition you see in a magical girl contract, which you keep telling me not to get?" He asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "That’s even if I get what you’d tell me. I have no fucking idea how magic works with timelines. Like I said, some things are magical girl questions, and we haven't clocked enough hours in that kind of training."

It was hard to be patient given how easily he fixed her eyes, but Homura had already waited out timelines for Madoka. She could wait a little more.

"It would help if you knew more," she acknowledged.

"Maybe next time I'll get to play tag with you."

"I didn't think you'd be that eager for another game, after I won the title of teacher."

"Don't get too used to it, Akemi-sensei. I'm pretty sure you opted out of the rhythm game I played earlier because you couldn't keep up."

"It's possible. I've never skipped school to play arcade games." He didn't look as tense as he had when she first met him this morning, but she asked just to be sure. "Will you be playing more games?"

"I think I'm ready to head back to the start of the school day." Despite his statement, he was still slow in making a move, as if there was something he just recalled he should be doing. "I won't be taking you as a passenger. But I can take notes, I guess, since you wouldn't be here if I hadn't wanted to come."

She didn't tell him that he'd offered again after he had gone back. He'd find out soon enough. "I'll be expecting your notes then."

"I'd need your number for that." His posture had lapsed again into the perfect study of nonchalance, shades deliberately not turned in her direction as if he didn't care if she gave it or not. "Or your email. Since I'm not writing the notes by hand."

She refrained from mentioning his notebook and held out her hand. After some thought, he handed her his phone. She typed in her email, and handed it back.

He didn't even check the screen as he tucked the phone back in his pocket, then tossed off a wave as he rounded the row of arcade games. He'd barely been gone a minute when Homura heard her phone chime.

She checked her email to find that Strider had sent her a series of pictures. At first glance they appeared to be documenting funny expressions their Math teacher made mid explanation. That every single picture also featured the examples on the board was purely a coincidence.

Despite herself she saved the pictures, and started on her way back to school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dual wielding gun game is Gunslinger Stratos - I may have watched the clips on this website far too many times ~~while drooling~~ : <http://gunslinger-stratos.jp/gs2/>. Stage and Characters are my favorite parts of that site!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge THANK YOU to my beta and overall lovely friend [Suikyou](/users/Suikyou/), who wants you all to know that the singular plot bunny on the last credit is false advertising as she is betaing while dealing with my plot bunny barrage.

\--turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 23:36 --

TG: forgive me for i have sinned  
GG: :o

Of course Jade was still awake, even though it's after 3 in the morning where she is.

GG: that sounds like something youd type at rose!  
TG: yeah i typed that at rose and she kicked me out of the box saying that it was a confession for the assembly of sacred space rather than the church of living light  
GG: and you run the trinity temple of time???  
TG: as snazzy as that name is im thinking no  
TG: time for everyone  
TG: you get a second and you get a second and you get a second everyone gets a second  
GG: yay i am so happy to have my seconds!!  
TG: yeah save some of them for what im about to say  
TG: i hope youre holding on to your big girl pants  
GG: ill hold on to all of my clothes!  
GG: make it quick i only have two hands!

>TAKE DEEP BREATH, TRY NOT TO FOCUS ON THE WORDS YOUR FINGERS ARE FORMING

TG: welp  
TG: i did the time travelling thing  
GG: :o  
GG: you made a time double! :)  
TG: hang on my gut is talking to me  
TG: whats that gut you got a feeling that nothing happened to the universe  
TG: gee you should have spoken up earlier could have saved a whole bunch of pixels from coming together for an unnecessary confession  
GG: the universe is fine!!  
GG: actually im happy you told us about magical girls!  
GG: that means the universe is used to all the cool things that magical girls can do  
GG: so we can do our cool things as well if magical girls can do them too :)

Dave had lucked out that Homura had similar enough time powers that the universe was desensitized to time shenanigans. By the time he'd trotted out the time doubles, the universe had just rolled with it.

GG: do you know what magical girls can do  
GG: have you met a teleporter yet

Of course Jade would pick the cool AND dangerous option of possibly splicing herself. Dave had watched shows with teleportation he was an expert in the risks.

>DISSUADE

TG: thats a no to that question and the questions from the past and future jades  
TG: no scotty you cannot beam me up you cannot beam yourself up no beaming allowed this is a no beam zone  
TG: stick to reaching through space youve mastered this long distance heist gig  
GG: oops :)  
GG: i didnt go very far! i just used my powers to make a small trip to the top of the volcano  
TG: just the top of the volcano  
TG: hang on let me check my phone warranty see if they cover burns from heaping servings of sarcasm  
TG: gonna make gordon ramsay cry with how perfect the proportion of sarcasm is  
GG: dont be such a big baby  
GG: i didnt fall into lava or the sea  
GG: this is science! we cant always keep observing magical girls because we have no idea what they can do!  
GG: we can act as a control group :) and the universe seems fine with that :)  
TG: why thank you spokeswoman of the universe harley  
TG: throwing out that groundbreaking revelation to the media scrum just watch them tear each other apart to see who gets to publish that as an exclusive  
TG: my moneys on tmz  
GG: you can come up on the podium and share about magical girls too!

All he could think about was his surprise that Homura actually knew how to have fun. Since he knew that Jade meant magical girl powers, he skipped the explanation that would probably use up even more pixels than the ones he’d already wasted on an unnecessary confession.

TG: see if i do that it wont just be a media frenzy  
TG: told you that magical girls exist and it made you take up volcano jumping  
TG: id be singlehandedly responsible for a new wave of extreme sports  
TG: nah 1 on 1 tutorials already keep me too busy trying to stop you from doing an acrobatic fucking pirouette into a volcano  
GG: heheheh!  
GG: then tell me more so i dont teleport to find out for myself!  
TG: if theres more to know

  


* * *

  


Dave had mostly been trying to fend Jade off when he pretended to ponder if there was more to know. The first time that he'd found out about magical girls he'd seen Incubator and a Wraith. He hadn't seen either since, and there were too many time shenanigans the last he talked to Homura that the other crazy things about this universe hadn't come up. He'd been hoping that Wraiths were a very rare, very occasional bug, and not a feature.

But Wraiths had been a serious enough problem that the Incubators had resorted to magical girl exterminators to keep them in check. So when Homura and Sakura had suddenly gone battle ready during English, Dave knew that the problem had reared its literal ugly head again.

Sakura raised her hand and called out in Japanese, "Sensei! Homura is feeling faint and forgot her heart medicine! Permission to escort her to wait for a taxi?"

Heart medicine? The Homura that had gone all out to fight the Wraith didn't look like a patient who’d keel over clutching her chest, and the hospital dramas wouldn’t have lied to him about that.

Homura didn't refute Sakura's statement, only offering an apologetic tilt of her head to the English teacher standing next to Bro. "Sorry to bother."

"Do be careful, Akemi-san. Do you want to wait in the nurses' room while Sakura-san calls a taxi for you?"

"It should be fine as long as I can sit and wait."

No one seemed too bothered as Sakura and Homura both left, Sakura carrying Homura's schoolbag as the smallest of pretenses to keep up the act. Dave didn't have such a well-rehearsed excuse to get out of class, and there were no Future Daves waiting around to tag in.

But there was Bro, standing by Dave's desk. They'd been keeping their distance from each other since the roof, and this was the closest he'd been today. Bro wouldn't start a strife with an audience, so Dave waited him out.

"I left some teaching materials in the staff room, think you could get them for me?"

Dave had seen Bro prepare for class enough times to know that Bro didn’t believe in teaching materials, just as he didn’t believe in clapping his hands to revive fairies. Even though Bro didn't know about Wraiths, Homura and Sakura disappearing at the same time was too juicy a detail not to follow up on. He was pretty sure Bro was pretty bummed that he couldn't go himself without having too many questions from the teacher he was assisting.

Alright, so Dave was a little curious too. He still took his own sweet time in rising from his seat.

"Hope they aren't too hard to find," he said aloud, and also flashed Bro a thumbs up so he knew Dave had understood what he was really suggesting.

The glass walls of the classroom showed a lack of magical girls and an excess of curious eyes, which kept Dave from shifting to his flash step right away. Once he was at the admin block, it was a no-holds-barred dash out of the school.

When he next spotted Homura and Sakura, they'd already ditched their bags and were running all out. They paused on a path lined with trees, and Homura set off her transformation.

Except this wasn't the quick affair that Dave had seen at his very first Wraith fight. As Dave stopped to stare, a band of light around her left middle finger transformed into a jewel shaped like an egg. Homura herself went transparent so that you could see the inky blackness within the outline of her form. Then as the jewel shifted into a glowing mass of purple light the image of her stuttered like a film strip run frame by frame, sometimes going in the wrong direction, sometimes showing a silhouette etched in pink instead of Homura. When her transformation resumed its normal broadcast the inky darkness within her had been replaced by stars floating in the iridescent colors blooming across space. She closed her left hand around the glowing orb, causing the transparent form to slide off her. It splashed down like water to reveal Homura in the full magical girl outfit that Dave was more familiar with. That wasn't all - she raised her hands to her ribbon and then swept her hands back over her hair. When the gesture brushed her shoulders her white wings of light burst out from the point of contact.

"I'll head over first," she said to Sakura, without any care that she’d just done a Sailor Moon transformation sequence with the sexy silhouettes toned way down and the flashy space effects dialed way up, since psychedelic scenes in space had dominated over the film strip hinting at Homura's time powers.

Dave didn't have time to dwell on how grossly misrepresented magical girls were in media as Homura took off. This time, her flight was way faster than what he’d seen at the last fight; her speed meant that the average human probably couldn't see her.

He was all ready to see if Sakura's transformation would help him figure out Homura's when Sakura tilted her head back to look right at him. "Come out from there. If you're spying on our magic, do it where I can see you."

Welp, the gig was up. He stepped out from the trees as she fished out a box of Pocky and helped herself to one.

"Let's go. A girl's gotta eat." She broke into a run, expecting Dave to follow just as Homura had. Maybe it was a magical girl thing. 

He started running to keep up. "You're already eating Pocky whether or not I come along."

"This?" She snapped the Pocky stick and nabbed it again with just her mouth. "This has nothing to do with magic. Did you think it was that easy to maintain? No, magic has its own food chain to keep it going. Magical beasts feed on unmagical humans and magical girls feed on magical beasts. So don't make me miss out on this magical beast just because you're following Homura around."

Sakura talked a lot more than Homura, but what she said was so different that he wasn’t sure he could get all the facts to line up. Starting with Dave preferring the English term “Wraith” over the Japanese term “magical beast” so much he was going to mentally dub over Sakura. "I thought Wraiths were formed from the grief and hate of humanity so you were getting them with magical bug spray before they hurt humans."

"Of course the bottom of the food chain is happy that we're taking out the middle. Doesn't mean the food chain doesn't still exist. So where do you feature in this food chain with all your non-magic based powers?"

The food chain here didn’t even have the concept of God Tier, so Dave had to try another tack. "Think of it as noping out of the food chain, since Wraiths can't touch this."

"You're too interested in magical girls and now Wraiths to ignore the food chain that involves both. Careful with all that interest, or someone might think you were hunting magical girls."

"No. No no no that's absolutely not anything that I want to do at all."

"Figured Homura had to have more sense than that, since she didn't mind letting you know more about our magic." Sakura skidded to a stop, and Dave didn't have to ask why. This Wraith was seated and its flaming javelin looked like it was causing the two smaller figures that were fighting it much more trouble. "I'll make you a deal. Leave this Wraith to us and I just might believe you aren't here for a fight."

Maybe all the Wraiths had a different motif, and Dave was only imagining that this Wraith seemed harder to fight. "Mind if I add one rule to that?"

Sakura inclined her head and tapped out a new stick of Pocky.

"Don't die," he said, echoing her rule from no weapons tag since it conveniently conveyed how he preferred his life to be corpse free.

She grinned around her new Pocky. "From a Wraith like this? Ha!"

This close Dave saw that the egg-shaped jewel was formed from a ring on Sakura’s middle finger. She snapped down on her Pocky again but this time the break created a spark that bloomed into a diagonal line of flames. Her form went transparent as she flicked her jewel towards the flames. When the jewel connected with it, the flames flared outwards in the disturbing shape of waving hands and completely obscured her form. Sakura's own hands reached through the waving mass and pulled in all of the flames to reveal her transformed self. The flames travelled up her arms and centered around a pendant set in her collar. She reached up to pull the flames from the pendant and reshape them into pillars of red light surrounding her, before again sweeping these up to form the segments of her spear. A few more fancy twirls and she struck a pose with her jointed up spear.

Dave spared her some applause and she snorted. "It wasn't meant for your entertainment," she tossed over her shoulder, and like Homura, put on a burst of super speed that was far quicker than anything he'd seen her pull off at lunch. So taking the time to transform amped their magical abilities. If Bro were here he'd need to make a new version of his auto-responder to get down all the notes that he wanted to take. As for the transformation itself, it didn’t seem there was a link to the powers a magical girl used, since Sakura didn't fight with fire too. Maybe it was a theme thing, like Dave having a Land of Heat and Clockwork.

Dave waited until Sakura was too busy with her fight to get closer. Now he could make out which figure was which - Homura was focusing her arrows on a dismembered hand held down by yellow ribbons. Those must have come from the new blonde magical girl, though the only weapon he saw on her right now was her huge rack. Sakura was engaging the Wraith spear-to- flaming-spear. As Dave watched, the hand bound by ribbons suddenly broke free to fire a volley of sabers from its palm. Neither the new girl or Homura flinched; the new girl simply summoned a crap ton of muskets out of nowhere and shot all the sabers out of the air, while Homura kept up her volley of arrows to completely decimate the separated hand.

Body part dispatched, they turned their attention to the Wraith itself. Tired of using its spear, the Wraith fired off a blast from the symbol separating the two halves of its face, making the magical girls scatter. When they regrouped it was with Homura above, while Sakura and the new girl stood shoulder to shoulder.

"Akemi-san, see if you can take off its head. Kyouko, keep its javelin busy. I'll keep trying to destroy the body."

The Wraith used the lull in attacks to try and hurl its javelin at them, but Sakura wrapped her extended spear around the thrown javelin and brought it crashing down, snapping it in the process. The Wraith formed a new javelin, and the girl giving instructions flung out ribbons to bind the weapon to the Wraith's hand.

Homura had left them to it and was worrying the head of the Wraith by peppering it with her arrows. With the Wraith's attention diverted, Sakura and the girl began their parts of the plan.

From the way all three fought, Dave learned that if Sakura was right about the food chain, magical girls were really the raptors while Wraiths were the T-rex, and any humans nearby had better hope there was a ship to get them out of Jurassic Park. Wraiths were large and had a mean bite, but magical girls were smart and didn't have any problems mauling you to death. Though magical girls boasted a lot more than just teeth. If the three magical girls in front of him were typical, magical girls liked their multiples - multiple arrows for Homura, multiple guns for the new girl, and even Sakura had multiple parts of her spear.

Bro was right that the magical girls didn't seem to mind losing parts of their soul. The new girl threw away each of her guns after using them once without caring that each gun was a part of her soul. It didn't seem to affect her fighting capabilities either, just as Homura firing off parts of her soul in the form of arrows wasn't affecting her. Her latest salvo destroyed the symbol in the middle of the Wraith's head and sent the two halves of it tumbling their separate ways, proving her weapons were definitely effective on the Wraith. Sakura immediately deflected the Wraith's javelin and leapt back. The new girl summoned a cannon sized gun.

"Tiro Finale!" she shouted, and an epic fireball exploded from the end of the gun to tear through the Wraith.

Jade was right, too. Any universe that could handle the amount of firepower that had just been thrown at this Wraith could probably handle the full range of God Tier powers as well. Bro would be so annoyed that the rooftop demo hadn't shown the actual power levels of magical girls; he'd have to redo all his calculations from scratch.

With that final attack, the Wraith had disintegrated in a similar way as the first Wraith Dave had ever defeated. Wondering if all Wraiths dropped exactly the same grief cubes or if there were different kinds like grist, he walked towards where the Wraith had been.

The grief cubes littering the ground were all identical to the ones he remembered. He'd barely stepped past the first pile of grief cubes when the new girl and Homura turned as one to aim their weapons at him.

"I come in peace," he intoned, using Japanese for the new girl's benefit even though he was pretty sure half of the impact was ruined by the language divide. With the coordinated response to his presence, he was now thinking of magical girls less as raptors and more like Emily Blunt from the _Edge of Tomorrow_ , if there was an entire battalion of Blunts.

Homura dispelled her bow, and Dave went back to forgetting that it was a part of her soul that he’d accidentally got handsy with. Sakura rose to join Homura as she said, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he followed me. Here's for keeping up your end of the deal." Sakura flicked a stick of Pocky at him.

Dave nabbed the Pocky out of the air, holding it between his fingers like a baton. "You gonna pat me on the head and tell me I'm a good boy next?" he asked. "I'm Dave Strider by the way, if anyone can bother with introductions."

"I am Mami Tomoe," the new girl said in textbook English, finally dispelling her musket. "Are you the transfer student from America?"

He switched to English as well. "Guess my reputation precedes me. I'm that transfer student. Were you a transfer student like Sakura and Homura?"

"I grew up in Mitakihara," Tomoe said, though she spared a glance at Homura, who didn't acknowledge the attention. "Pardon my forwardness, but you should be in class. Why are you here?"

"I was wondering if the giant I saw was a new type of Godzilla. I heard _kaiju_ films are making a comeback."

"Don't mind his ramblings, he knows more than he lets on," said Homura. Her formality ought to have made her English sound textbook too, but she didn’t hesitate over her words the way Tomoe did. Yet another puzzle in the mystery that was Homura Akemi.

Dave was definitely not going to be textbook - there it went into the book burning pyre. "Way to ruin my Man of Mystery charm. I thought you enjoyed my way with words."

Homura immediately put her own advice of ignoring Dave into practice and switched to Japanese for Sakura's benefit, though she kept words like Wraith in English. "He helped me fight a Wraith earlier this week. I told Sakura-san but I hadn't gotten around to updating you."

"I didn't see it, but I can believe it," Sakura added.

Tomoe also switched to Japanese, which was a better language on her. "Sorry, Kyouko. I just got too excited at the chance to practice my English. We'll keep to Japanese from now on, if it's alright with you, Strider-san?"

"Strider-san is my brother, just Strider will do," he said, glossing over the part where he attended lessons in JAPANESE, how’s _that_ for fluency.

"I'll try, but it's not my usual manner of speaking. This isn't our usual manner of hospitality either. I'd love to sit and talk, but we have to collect these cubes and then hurry back to class."

"I could lend a hand," he said, then remembered the last time he had been around grief cubes Homura had tried to wipe his memory. This time he had weapons pointed at him. "If that's alright with you."

"You don't have to trouble yourself. We'll be moving around while talking, which makes for very awkward conversation, especially when I'm probably going to ask too much about your last fight with a Wraith."

"Are the grief cubes that important that you have to collect them before you leave?"

All three magical girls were suddenly very focused on collecting the grief cubes. It was Sakura who first spoke up. "You're forgetting what I told you about the food chain. Why would we go to all this trouble of killing the Wraith if we're just going to leave the spoils lying around?"

Tomoe had another question. "What do you know about Wraiths, Strider-s... Strider?"

"Not enough, apparently. So all the grief and hate of humanity that form Wraiths is what you feed on?"

"No one wants to feel grief, including magical girls. Grief corrupts our ability to use magic." She picked up a grief cube. "Wraiths eat all emotions, including grief, and leave an emotionless husk behind. But once Wraiths are reduced to grief cubes, the cubes can draw out our grief without affecting any other emotions."

"So grief cubes are Prozac to magical girls." And useless to humans of course, because when was the universe ever helpful to Dave?

The comparison earned an uncomfortable cough from Tomoe. "If that's how you want to look at it. It's a good thing that you don't know any of this. That means whatever you use to fight Wraiths doesn't rely on grief cubes. What do you use to fight Wraiths?"

"A shitty sword, not anything with a name or forged in a manga fire."

Sakura piped up again without pausing in picking up grief cubes. "He also broke apart my wards when I challenged him. It felt like accelerated decay of whatever he touches."

He’d never been on the receiving end of time powers before Homura’s attempt, maybe it could feel that way? So he said, "Didn't use that ability on Wraiths, in case it was like reversing Godzilla into radioactive glop." What he was more sure of was that he wasn’t enjoying this live demo of the magical girl rumor network by Sakura, and that the more Tomoe asked questions, the more he didn’t want to elaborate.

Tomoe, not knowing this, had more questions. "Swords alone wouldn't be enough to fight a Wraith. Are you in the fencing club or a similar sport?"

Homura, who knew the most, finally cut in, though not in the way that Dave thought she would. "I helped with the fight. Remember how you used to help Miki-san when she was still deciding to make her contract?"

Dave didn't get the reference. It didn't matter so long as Tomoe did, though it made her dip her head as if she'd recalled something sad. He was relieved when Tomoe packed in her moment of sudden wistfulness because he was not good with crying girls. When she next spoke, her voice was strong, commanding even. "I'd almost forgotten about that, since I haven't needed to do it in a while. Strider-san, I hope the two fights that you've seen have made you realise how dangerous it is to fight Wraiths. Even magical girls have trouble with some Wraiths."

Whatever cool image Tomoe had cultivated with that warning was ruined when Sakura pinged her in the side of her head with a grief cube. "Eh, I wouldn't be too worried about him. Strider has a knack for scurrying away just like a cockroach."

"Kyouko!" If Tomoe had the habit of wearing pearls, she would be clutching all of them right now instead of her grief cubes.

Dave beat Tomoe to answer, even though Tomoe had known Sakura longer. "She's just saying that because she wasn't even aiming her fly swatter in the right direction."

"Just wait until I finish cleansing my soul gem, I'd flatten you right here."

"No one is getting flattened or challenged from now on. Right, Akemi-san?"

Homura, back to collecting grief cubes, didn't even look up at Tomoe's comment. "I don't waste my time on idiots."

"I should have told myself that before bothering to ask." With a sigh Tomoe turned back to Dave. "As unlikely as it seems, you're luckier than most. There's two magical girls at your school that will get rid of Wraiths, even if Kyouko has a bad habit of challenging others to fights. You don't have to use your - what was it, decay powers?"

"Unwinding powers," he admitted, because that was a better match for what Sakura had seen.

"How'd you come by those powers?"

"Maybe I was born with it." Was Maybelline even popular in Japan, or even have the same tag line after translation?

It was definitely the wrong pun to make around Sakura, because she pointed out, "That'd mean Strider-sensei has powers too."

"You’re gonna go all Fight Club on him too?" Dave would actually pay good money to see her try, but Bro probably wouldn't want to waste his powers on a cage match.

"Why'd you have to go and say that in front of her?" Sakura grumbled as she jerked a thumb at Tomoe, who immediately proved Sakura right with her next comment.

"Challenging them won't help us keep them safe from Wraiths."

Right, Dave had to correct Tomoe before this got any further. "Nice sentiment, but I've always taken care of my own safety. That's not going to change even in Mitakihara, no matter how many magical girls there are in the neighborhood. I'm not going to ignore the warning labels on Wraiths and risk getting chomped on like the Heartless snack on Nobodies. I prefer Wraiths on the pointy side of my sword. You don't have to worry about my powers, they don't stop the Wraiths from dropping grief cubes."

"I can respect your choice to protect yourself from Wraiths. I'd still be quite uncomfortable fighting Wraiths with you and your unknown powers."

"Then I'll keep on keeping out of your way. Mitakihara's large enough for the both of us."

"We haven't met until now, so it's entirely possible. Still, I hope you won't be too much of a stranger if our paths should cross again. Kyouko, could I have a few more grief cubes to get me back to class?"

This time Sakura didn't flick the cubes at Tomoe's head, but tipped them into Tomoe's palm. Tomoe nodded her thanks and goodbyes to all, looped a ribbon around a nearby streetlamp and swung her way out of the park with a grace that leaned on the “gymnast” side of the scale instead of “Tarzan”.

He hadn't known Sakura or Homura to keep the peace if something was really bothering them, but he asked anyway, "Anyone else as uncomfortable as your friend?"

Sakura pointed at the Pocky that was still in Dave's hand. "You gonna eat that?"

Dave handed it back to Sakura, who promptly bit into it. "I don't plan ahead. If you continue to keep up your end of deals, we shouldn't have a problem."

"Whatever concerns Tomoe-san has aren't mine," said Homura. "Sakura-san, do you have enough magic to get back or do you need a moment here?"

Sakura turned on her heel. "Let's head back."

**Author's Note:**

> Since 18 Feb is humankind's birthday in the Chinese lunar calendar, here's the playlists I made for the fic:
> 
> [Youtube (superior version)](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6nKI-503KXN92-yT5SqYLZoDTon6pm5C); [Spotify (acceptable version)](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/78HjpAsKRxowftrluK9gqw?si=23dd90ec7ee748f3)
> 
> There's songs that are only available on Youtube due to the artists/ remixes, so do try that one first!


End file.
